


Universal Headaches

by Something_clever



Series: Universal [1]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Adventure, Agents, Alternate Universe, Babysitting, Comedy, F/M, Government Conspiracy, Loki Is A Jerk, avengers come to our world, easy reading, have to get home, hopefully not mary-sue, implied clintasha if you squint, just for fun story, not really any romance, references to other characters - Freeform, team story, whoops OFC keeps messing up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-13
Updated: 2015-05-14
Packaged: 2018-03-17 15:22:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 67,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3534413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Something_clever/pseuds/Something_clever
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(Originally posted on FFn) </p>
<p>AU. Sutton is living the average life. That is, until The Avengers suddenly appear out of nowhere! Now she's stuck babysitting them, and Loki, until they can find a way home. It should be easy, right? No problem. That is, unless the government noticed them too. Or if Loki acts on this sudden interest in her, so-called, "potential".</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Wow, this was something I started working on in 2013, but decided to post it here too just for fun. Basically it was a story for me to work on while procrastinating, and it sort of took on a life of it's own. I can't say it's the best work ever, but it's not meant to be taken too seriously and gives me an outlet to write for fun. 
> 
> With that being said, I've gotten people telling me they actually enjoy it and that brings me more joy than anything else. If I can make one person laugh or amuse someone, my job is done. 
> 
> So, read if you'd like, enjoy, and feel free to leave a note! (Really, go ahead.)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> https://www.fanfiction.net/imanager/image_manager_single.php?imageid=913128

Sutton did not approve of her friend's drinking habits. She tended not to hang out with him at large gatherings because of it, but he'd needed a ride this time. And they were going to the same place. And if there was one thing she was, darn it, it was environmentally friendly! At the moment, he was leaving against her window and giggling like an idiot. And, really, while he was wearing his zombie Batman costume, was starting to freak her out a little.

"Chase, shut up will you?"

They were getting close to his house and Sutton couldn't wait to shove him into his house and then get home to download her Comic Con pictures. Nerdy? Sure. But it was her thing and she wasn't sorry.

"I can't," Chase slurred in reply. "I am the dead of knight!"

And he burst into another round of drunken giggles. A grown man. Giggling. Sutton rolled her eyes and sighed.

"Whatever."

Chase's porch light came into view and she smiled widely.

"You're almost home, weirdo. Have your house key?"

She was uncertain, but it sounded like he was trying to sing some boy band song while he slapped at his pockets.

A bright light suddenly burst before them and Sutton swerved slightly while squinting from the burning her retinas were doing.

"Freaking people with their brights on."

She stopped in front of Chase's house and told him to get out of her car. The light from before had disappeared, but no car had passed. She shook it off as she stepped out of her car with only a blazer on to protect her from the cold. Then began the process of trying to drag Chase back into his house. Sutton swore she'd never give him a ride anywhere again. Who needed friends anyway? Not like this! Before entering the house, she gave a quick sweep of the street and noticed the silhouette of a group of, costumed?, people. She rolled her eyes for the umpteenth time that day and made sure Chase collapsed on his couch.

More comic con hoodlums.

Bidding her friend a goodnight, and good riddance, she made her way back to her car. She quickened her pace when she noticed that the group was still in the middle of the street, and right in front of her car. In the direction she needed to go home. A couple of the guys were freakishly tall, and she didn't have her mace. With locked doors she pulled forward as far as she could and then honked her horn lightly. The group was finally able to be identified as some people cosplaying as the Avengers. While she appreciated their taste, she didn't really have time for role playing; or whatever they were doing at the moment. Errands were still waiting bright and early tomorrow.

"Hey!" She rolled down her window marginally and poked some of her head out. "Can you guys get out of the way? I'd like to get home tonight."

The entire group turned to face her, but didn't seem too intent on moving.

"Ma'am," one man spoke up. "You really need to leave the area. It's not a safe-"

"Yeah, yeah. You've got big bad Loki to battle, but listen. Take it somewhere else. You can't play in the middle of the street."

"Excuse me?"

For the first time, Sutton noticed a glowing blue orb and she blinked. Finally focusing on the faces around her car visible with the headlights, she couldn't tell if she should be impressed or extremely concerned.

"You guys, uh, seriously did a good job of finding doppelgangers. It's almost...disconcerting."

The one dressed as Loki stood off in the shadows, but she could see his eyes gleaming as they watched her.

"Listen, kid. I don't know if you hit your head or something, but you need to back up and leave the crime fighting to the professionals."

The man dressed like Iron Man's face plate flipped up and Sutton jolted in her seat. It moved! And it was kind of hard not to recognize the Robert Downey Jr.

"Are you drunk," she asked.

"Surprisingly, not today."

She was going to call their bluff. She really was. All the words were there to call them fanatics and crazy, or overcommitted, but they all died in her throat. They died because she heard a reverberating grunt, and then it stepped out from the darkness her car lights didn't touch. A tingling sensation ran down her face as it grew cold and she gripped the steering wheel.

"Holy crap."

"Yeah."

"HOLY CRAP."

Sutton threw open her door and stumbled out of her car to scurry back around it.

It was the Hulk.

Not, like, a man painted green or some freaky animatronic puppet, but the Hulk. She could see his muscles flexing, his grimace as he glanced in her direction, and she could feel his growl as he went back to keeping his eyes on Loki. Loki.

"You, you guys are-are the Avengers! How the- am I drunk?"

"Ma'am," said Captain freaking America. "I'm going to have to ask you to calm down."

"Well isn't that a grand idea!"

This is what she would classify as a Level Ten Freak Out. She knew she'd always been saving it for something. Despite it, she didn't miss the look that the assassins shared with each other.

"How do you know about the Avengers?" Hawkeye's fingers were twitching over his bow.

"Huh, good point. I thought we were all part of Fury's top secret boy band. Plus one chick."

Black Widow shot him a glare.

"Where are we, mortal?"

Sutton peeked around her hood to see Thor frowning down at her. Loki was right behind him, so she quickly looked away.

Not Tom Hiddleston. NOT Tom Hiddleston.

They all seemed to be in consensus on the question, and all seemed to expect an answer.

"Um, Puyallup. Washington. The state, not D.C."

Gosh, she got tired of people always assuming she meant the capital.

The team seemed to be initially shocked, gasps ringing out among them. Then they seemed to mull it over, unanimously come to the conclusion that it was Loki's fault, and brought their attention back to her.

"That still doesn't explain how you know about a secret government program, or why you seem to be wearing earth's current top villain on your shirt."

That comment from Black Widow didn't help her lose the team's interest. Leave it to the girl to notice her fashion choices.

She winced and tried to close her blazer over the tee in question.

Great. Now even Loki seems intrigued.

"Look," she said while edging toward her car door. "This is hard to explain, I mean, it's crazy. I'm probably insane or going to have traumatic psychological damage from this. Your best course of action is to have Loki teleport you back home. The sooner the better actually."

"Right. Like we're going to trust him with our well being," spat Hawkeye. "Wait. You know this guy?"

Sutton shriveled further next to her car.

"Even if you begged for my help, I could do no such thing," Loki spoke up. "Nor would I. The power of the Tesseract has faded from my grasp, thanks to your stupidity."

"Brother, now is not the time."

"I am not your brother."

"Can we dial down the angst here for a second?" Tony seemed to have decided that the fight had died down, and Sutton watched in awe as his suit folded itself down into a box.

"I didn't know that model did that," she muttered to herself. But Tony quirked an eyebrow at her.

"Kid, can we hurry this conversation along so we can get out of here. Spill. I have things to do. Like Pepper."

Sutton swore she saw Captain America blush.

"Short version?"

"Preferably."

Sutton took a deep breath and straightened her blazer. She brushed off some imaginary lint and fixed her hair. She sighed.

"Well, here, you don't really...exist."

"Come again?"

Tony leaned back on his left leg and crossed his arms; Sutton huffed.

"Look! I don't know if this is some very elaborate and convincing," she glanced at the Hulk, "prank, or what. But you are comic book characters. Actors, icons, whatever. I don't know if you jumped dimensions or something, but I feel like I'm going a little crazy, ok?"

Captain America actually walked over and placed a hand on her shoulder and she could only freeze and stare at him in wonder.

"We're sorry, miss..."

"Sutton."

"Miss Sutton, if this has put pressure on you, but you have to understand were we're coming from too."

"Of course."

She saw Tony roll his eyes skyward and she scowled. The team was either looking at her like she was crazy or mind controlled. She felt her nerves spike.

"You want proof? Ok. Fine."

It would have been the perfect opportunity to roll her shoulders and crack her knuckles, but she refrained. She pointed to each person in turn.

"Pepper saved your first arc reactor and it saved your life, you are good at art and had a date, you tried to kill yourself and failed, something happened in Budapest, you were hit by a car twice, and you're a fro-"

At the look Loki was shooting her she froze.

"Um. You're good at lying."

The group was quiet, each contemplating her statements before Tony piped up.

"Yup. She definitely knows too much."

They finally came to an agreement that the Avengers would not arrest her and hold her for questioning and, in return, she would give them a ride and a place to stay. Sutton felt like she didn't really win in the trade off.

I should have stuck with Chase. At least he just sleeps.

So, after the Hulk had calmed down enough to revert to (a semi-naked) Bruce Banner, they all crammed into her small SUV and she puttered home.


	2. Chapter 2

It was a tense, awkward drive all the way to her house. And she thanked God that her roommate had just left for a three month backpacking trip in Australia. For a stupid walkabout. To find herself. Because her parents were rich and she could. Never mind that it was probably a big waste of money. And she hadn't even invited Sutton to go.

Opening the front door, she flicked on the lights and prayed that her house was decent.

Oh please, oh please, today of all days, I beg you.

The Avengers wandered in after her and Tony had sonar or something, because he found her laptop under her couch pillow in two point three seconds.

"Hey! That's mine!"

"Um, aware of that. Doing some research."

He shooed her away flippantly and Sutton scowled. Swiping her laptop off the coffee table he'd set it on and tucking it under her arm she addressed the team. And kind of Loki.

"Look, I think we've all had a long day. What with defending New York, or failing to take it over," she gestured at the villain. "So I think it'd be best if we all got some sleep and we discussed this more in the morning."

So much for downloading those pictures.

Thinking, she looked down the short hall.

"You guys are going to have to bunk up."

Tony shot up his arm.

"I call Natasha!"

Sutton could have sworn that he should have burst into flames from the looks he received from both S.H.I.E.L.D agents.

She ended up shoving Thor, Loki, and the noble Steve Rogers in her roommate's bedroom, Clint and Natasha in her room, and then Tony and Bruce on the couches. Because they were shorter and they could handle it. Sutton built herself a bed in the bathtub in their one bathroom. The door had a lock on it, and she hoarded away her laptop and DVD collection for safe keeping.

Curling up on top the sleeping bag she'd found, she rested her head on her small decorative pillow. With a moment alone just to breath she felt the panic sink in. Her head spun and her stomach sank, and she felt as if she might be sick. Clammy hands ran up and down her scratchy jeans.

"Oh God," she prayed. "I don't even know what's going on. What is this? How? Holy crap, they're in my house. They're real. They could dig through my laundry or judge my book collection. Oh no, oh no, oh no."

She lightly bit on her fist to stop the stream of word vomit.

"One day at at time; one day at a time."

Sutton awoke to instrumentals at 7:30am and groped to find her phone. She fumbled to turn it off while flopping out of the tub like some drunken fish and blearily stared around the bathroom. She needed coffee. Her mind felt thick and slow, what was she-

My laptop! My DVDs! They're gone!

She was a mess of limbs then, struggling to pull herself up to a standing position with some dignity.

Everyone was already awake. Everyone was already awake and in her living room!

"Hey!"

She had everyone's attention and she was sure that her hair and day old clothes looked marvelous.

"That door was locked!"

Everyone seemed unapologetic besides Thor who looked slightly chagrined, and Steve bowed his head as if she'd shamed him. Bruce actually shot her a cheeky smirk that took her back a bit.

"We have two master assassins, a super soldier, a god, and men of science. I think we could figure out how to jimmy open a push lock."

Tony held up his hand for a high-five.

"And you sleep like the dead," added Hawkeye.

"You should be thanking me anyway," the billionaire cut in. "I got you faster internet and better security. You know that invalid is, like, the worst password ever, right?"

"It is the principle of it! Locked doors mean stay out and- and I'm just wasting my breath."

A bit amusedly she noticed that there were already half eaten bowls of cereal and plates of food scattered about her coffee table.

"Hey, guys, you hungry? No really, help yourself."

They all ignored her and Natasha picked up one of her DVDs between two fingers to hold up at her eye level.

"Care to explain these?"

Sutton groaned and tried to smooth out her hair. Someone had laid out every super hero Marvel movie she owned. Which was all of them. Natasha was currently scrutinizing one with a glossy 'A' on it.

"Not really," she said. "But I don't think you'll take that as an answer."

"She's catching on," said Clint.

Looking down at her own ruffled appearance she sighed melodramatically. Time to stall.

"Can you all at least wait until I've rinsed off and put on clothes that I haven't slept in?"

Clint suddenly was wearing his scary face.

"Yeah. We've all just been kind of fighting a horde of aliens and slept in our suits, so..."

"We can all take showers, ok! And, no," she pointed at Tony. "Not together."

Somehow, they all got through showers without too much fuss. Nobody complained too much when the water went cold. Just a couple of initial shrieks from the unlucky party. Sutton was relieved to find herself in a clean pair of jeans and an unsuspicious t-shirt. The rest of the team had to make do with what she could find. Natasha was able to wear something of hers ok, but she really had to struggle for the guys. Luckily, the two Asgardians refused to change anyway, and her roommate's boyfriend had left behind a drawer full of clothes. She never thought she'd be grateful for that. Although, Steve did look kind of funny in high water jeans.

Before any more drama could ensue, Sutton made sure to grab herself a cup of coffee and a bagel. People tended not to like her when she was hangry.

They all regathered in her living room and piled onto her couches, leaving a large birth for Loki while she stood beside her TV.

"Ok, look. As I mentioned yesterday, alternate universe, or whatever. Here, you guys are superhero movies. I can't say how accurate they are for you, but I can't let you guys watch them. We need to be focusing on how to get you home, right? So, instead of interrogating Sutton, how about we try interrogating Loki."

"Mortal," Loki snarled, but Steve interrupted him.

"I agree with you about getting us home, miss. But we also need information about where we are to help us do that."

"I'm the star of all this, right? I mean, I have the most movies already."

Sutton glowered as they all began to throw in their two cents.

"I get that you all are curious, really!" She spoke over them. "But it could destroy space-time or mess up your future or something! I'm sorry. It's just not going to happen. And that's that!"

Apparently, if you tried to tell superheros that they couldn't do something, they just pinned you to the couch and did it anyway. She was wedged between Clint and Natasha, and it wasn't exactly making her feel warm and fuzzy. For the first time ever, she sat through The Avengers frowning and sulky. Oh, she had laughed slightly at the appropriate moments at first, but at the glares she received she quickly shut it up. She hoped that they were all thoroughly embarrassed at having their more private scenes watched. They deserved it.

Only Coulson's death scene came up and then she felt terrible. Had Clint and Bruce even known? Their pale faces said that they hadn't. She couldn't tell them that he was fine. She couldn't, shouldn't, would not. Sutton sank down in her seat and shot Loki a glare. He smirked at her.

The moment the credits started, Sutton shot up off the couch and attempted to dash for the DVD player.

"Ok, it's over!"

Her plans were foiled as Clint snagged the back belt loop of her jeans and yanked her back down.

"What's the rush? Let's just enjoy the credits. I like this music."

Clint's brow shot up and he wore a half smirk. The other Avengers looked at her almost knowingly. They had to know. Sutton dropped her head down and sighed.

"You already know about the after credits scene, don't you?"

Clint's smirk broke out into a smile, but his eyes were still dark. Sutton would tell him to go back to bed if she didn't feel her face heating up.

"Nope. But we do now. Thank you, for your cooperation."

Sutton shoved herself back into the couch and made an angry gurgling noise in the back of her throat.

"Curse you, S.H.I.E.L.D!"

Thanos was not a welcome sight for anyone, even if they weren't exactly sure who he was.

"Who the heck was the space god-father? He doesn't give me the warm fuzzies."

"You think," snapped Steve. "He's an associate of Loki's. Of course he's going to be bad."

"Let me guess," deadpanned Natasha. "The villain for our sequel?"

Sutton felt suddenly very somber. Superhero movies weren't as fun if they were real.

People can die, man!

"He's worse than Loki, actually," she said.

The room collectively groaned, but Loki was still. He suddenly looked less threatening.

"Of course he is," said Bruce. "Why not?"

Tony stretched out his fingers as if about to do some hardcore Googling.

"Let's wikipedia the crap out of this guy."

Sutton sighed and rolled her head onto her right palm.

"And this is where we mess up the space-time continuum."

"Or improve it," quipped Tony. "I'm not too keen on fighting some intergalactic gangster."

"You're not going to like what you find," sang Sutton. A thought came to her suddenly and she paled, turning to Loki.

"He can't, like, jump dimensions too, can he? He can't follow you here?"

Loki lifted one elegant brow and shrugged. If she hadn't already been recovering from a Tom Hiddleston addiction, she might have softened.

Remember your steps! Step one. Acknowledge he is a handsome man and move on...

"I know not," he said. "And if I did, I would not share the information with a mortal like yourself."

"You better hope he can't," she shot back. "Because I can't imagine he'd be too pleased with you either!"

Steve cut in and ended anything before it began.

"Let's just focus on the task at hand. What makes this guy so bad? Can you tell us that?"

Sutton shrugged and gestured toward and enthralled Tony.

"He'll probably know just as much as me or more in a minute. I'm not a super big comic book geek; don't have the funds. All I know is that Thanos is always trying to hit on Death and is basically unbeatable."

"Hit on," questioned Thor.

"Like, woo her," Sutton explained. "He's got a mega crush on her and tries to impress her by destroying planets. Hence the smirk when The Other mentioned courting death."

"That would be good information to have." Natasha did not look amused by Sutton's unenthusiastic sharing. Sutton supposed she couldn't blame her.

"Look," Sutton sighed. "I'm not trying to screw you guys over or anything. It's just, if you know things you aren't supposed to then it's going to change the decisions you make later. You can't know if that's good or bad."

Thor spoke up then and suddenly seemed more solemn and wise than she'd ever remembered seeing him.

"Still, Lady Sutton, however my brother brought us here, your world must have knowledge of us for a reason. Mayhaps we were meant to glean something from you and your world."

"I second Thor," said Clint. "The more intel we have the better."

Tony nodded but it seemed as if it were to himself.

"Point Break and Legolas have a point. Especially if we're going to have to battle a giant purple behemoth who is literally unbeatable. Oh look, we turn him to stone once. Doesn't seem to seem to have lasted. And he...kills us once? Yeah, slightly uncool."

The room began to raise in alarm and volume at that and Sutton face palmed. The one day she got off without taking leave and she was getting a migraine. She raised her head up slowly to see the team bickering amongst each other not unlike in the helicarrier scene in the film. Her eyes flitted to Loki and she found him observing the group with a small, cold smirk growing on his face. She couldn't let this go on. They had to go home. HE needed to go home.

"Ok! Enough!"

The room quieted at her outburst and she stood up from the couch.

"This is what I'm talking about. You don't know what's going to happen with all this. Heck, I don't even know. They could take it in a hundred different directions, but now you're all panicked. And, and, ugh!" She sat back down and aggressively began rubbing her temples. "You aren't even supposed to exist," she muttered.  
The room was still. Steve blinked. Tony lifted an eyebrow.

"Who's not to say you just don't have people who can see into our dimension and copy it?"

Her face became deadpan.

"This movie came out close to a year ago. And you all just zapped here from New York. Care to guess again, Mr. IQ?"

Tony sneered at the nickname, but she elicited smirks from everyone else. Her gaze drifted over everyone but froze over Loki. He wasn't cuffed or muzzled and the look of some dawning realization was creeping across his face. Sutton eyed him suspiciously as long as she dared before her stomach grew cold, and she turned back to the group.

Natasha crossed one perfect leg delicately over the other and gestured toward Sutton.

"As much as I'm all for intel, she has a point. We need to focus on figuring out a way home. Fury is probably having a fit and it'd be nice to send that one home."

Loki stiffened at her flippancy and Clint nodded.

"Tasha's right. How about the science bros get at it then. You can try building a Star Gate with her toaster or something."

"Science bros?" Sutton suddenly perked up. "Did you look that up?"

"Uh, no."

"Oh, well, it's just a thing."

"A thing?" Steve leaned forward in his seat.

"Yeah," Sutton brushed it off. "Just whatever you do, don't look up superhusbands. Trust me on this."

Sutton was sure she'd never seen a man blush so brilliantly. It was absolutely adorable.

"Ok," interrupted Bruce. "Can we get back on task. Again?"

Bruce and Tony shuffled and strutted into her kitchen to discuss science and thermo-whatevers. Sutton was contemplating googling some of those words later. If she could remember them. The two assassins took control of her laptop, so she chose to let it go. She'd rather keep all her fingers. That left America's mascot and the two extraterrestrials to entertain. Sutton took a deep breath and exhaled.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright! Here's the next chapter! Reviews are appreciated!

"I'm sorry," she said addressing Steve, "if I'm being terrible. I just don't really know what I'm doing."

"You're doing just fine," Steve assured her. "You're going through a lot, I'm sure. I thought it was bad enough waking up in the future."

Sutton smiled grimly.

"I bet."

Her attention turned then to Thor. He kept a grip on his hammer and a disapproving look on his brother.

"Hey, Thor, do you know anything about alternate dimensions? I mean, with you being from another planet and all. Has this ever happened before?"

Thor turned to her and shook his golden head sadly. She wondered briefly what kind of shampoo he used.

"I am afraid not, Lady Sutton. I have only ever known of the nine realms, and then the Chitauri. If anyone would have answers, I believe it would be my brother. But I am afraid that he may not be forthcoming."

All three turned to Loki for confirmation and he grinned maliciously at them.

"You would be correct, for once."

It really wasn't fair that he had the voice of Tom Hiddleston.

"Hey!" Clint was suddenly animated behind the computer. "Actor me is still awesome! He likes guns." He peered closer at the screen as if scrutinizing something. "Tasha, is that really my resting face?"

"Yes."

"Good."

Sutton was forced to go to the store in the afternoon. They all needed suitable clothes, and personal hygiene products, and food. A lot more food. Like, all her paycheck was going towards groceries. As if she weren't poor enough already. But she couldn't quite just drag them all with her to Wal Mart. That would go over so well. None the less she needed help, so she brought along the two master assassins. Because if anyone had to be stealth, she could count on them. She did as much as she could to disguise them; forcing Natasha into an oversized sweat shirt and both of them into ball caps, but she was still nervous.

The trip was sped through, but Sutton swore that they still got stares. The last thing she needed was paparazzi flashing cameras for tabloids, shouting, "THEY'RE JUST LIKE US!" Natasha and Clint helped her with clothing sizes and with pushing the cart and Sutton was like a drill sergeant with time. She rushed them home whether they'd been discovered or not, and hoped her house was still standing when she got there.

Luckily, it was. It was a bit suspicious that Loki had been on his best behavior so far. Not that she wasn't grateful for it; it just seemed...out of character.

Oh well, she thought. It's not like I don't have an entire house of super heroes to help me out if I need it.

And the rest of the evening was quiet. Bruce and Tony were neck deep in calculations she'd never understand and everyone else seemed like they were trying to cope with their current situation. This didn't feel like how she'd have expected it to go in her imagination. She should be jumping up and down and drooling over them, but also winning them over to love her because of her adorable wit and charm. This would be the time that any single male Avenger fell madly in love with her and Loki softened up and rediscovered his good side. Right? Wasn't that how these things went? But no. Everyone was doing their own thing, in her house, and just ignoring her in general. She felt gipped.

Sutton decided to busy herself with setting up the small air mattress that she'd bought instead of dwelling on her disappointed imagination. She grinned widely to herself as she was able to shove the mattress into her tub.

"Sweet!"

She was arranging her blankets over top when a shadow filled the doorway. Her spine tingled.

"Miss Sutton?"

"Oh geez! Chri- Capt- er, Steve! Hey, what's up?"

Steve eyed her makeshift bed almost guiltily. Sutton could see his jaw clench while he thought. It was a nice jaw.

"You shouldn't have to sleep in here again," he said. "You're already letting us stay in your home and eat your food."

Sutton stood up and straightened her back while brushing off his concerns.

"Oh, it's no big deal. I don't mind. Besides, I've gotten to meet all of you! For real! No one else can say that."

Steve still frowned. It was cute.

"It still isn't right that we're putting you out, ma'am."

"It's just Sutton," she corrected. "And I really don't mind. I actually prefer it. I have a door and it locks, even if you can all open it. I mean, not that I don't trust you guys-"

She floundered to recover, but Steve just nodded.

"No. I understand. It makes sense. You don't know us, and Loki is here. I just wanted to make sure we weren't taking advantage of your hospitality."

If she remembered correctly, they'd told her that she was going to house them or face arrest, but she still grinned at his chivalry.

"You're a great man, Steve. Don't let anyone ever convince you that being a gentleman is a bad thing. We need more of that."

Steve blushed again.

"Never, ma- Sutton."

"Well then. Want to help me make some dinner?"

They needed more food than one person could handle on their own.

The next morning came too early. Sutton blearily pulled on her work skirt and blouse, finished her bathroom routine, and tip-toed out to the living room. Bruce was still sleeping but the other couch was mussed and empty. Upon entering the kitchen she found the person in question. There were papers scattered all over her counter and a pot of coffee already brewed in the corner. Sutton gave Tony a silent nod and poured herself a cup. With an acceptable amount of creamer in it, she took a long drag and sighed happily.

"Do you ever sleep?"

Tony looked up from his calculations and gave her a grin.

"I got a few hours. Why? Worried about my beauty sleep? Don't worry, I don't really need it."

Sutton rolled her eyes.

"I just can't understand morning people. Or," she waved her hand in a circular motion, "all-nighters either, I guess."

Tony shrugged.

"Research isn't going to do itself. Besides, it's not like I had better things to do."

Sutton gestured to the paperwork with her mug free hand.

"Have you gotten anywhere with it?"

"You know, I invited it to dinner, but it's been playing hard to get."

Sutton laughed lightly, still conscious of the other people sleeping. Or at least just not out and about.

"I forgot that it doesn't turn off."

Sparing a quick glance at her watch, she straightened up from the counter.

"I have to go to work. But I feel weird leaving..."

"We're adults, kid. We'll be fine. No trouble from us, scouts honor."

Sutton sighed.

"Uh-huh. Ok. Well, if you're all gone when I get back I'm going to assume you made it home."

Tony snorted while scratching more numbers on his paper.

"I may be a genius, but I'm not a miracle worker."

Sutton moved out of the kitchen and grabbed her car keys with a backwards shrug.

"I don't know. You did create a mini arc reactor first try."

Tony looked up sharply as if surprised by the praise. A grin grew on his face.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were enabling me."

She poked her head back in the house from were she stood in the doorway.

"Then I'll try not to stroke your ego too much. Pepper wouldn't approve."

Work was oddly normal. Mundane. But it didn't feel like it. It felt new. Sutton walked into the office biting her lip and feeling bubbly. It was as if everyone would know what happened just by looking at her. No one said anything about it, of course; but when Jen, a fellow secretary, smiled with a hello, Sutton grinned nervously back.

"Hey, Jen. Did I miss anything while I was gone?"

Jen rolled her eyes good-naturedly and flicked back her blonde hair.

"Ugh. No. Not unless you count Randy almost getting into another fight news. What about you? Have a good couple of days off? How was comic con?"

Sutton tried not to flinch in her seat or sweat.

"Oh, it was good. Pretty normal stuff," she lied. "Chase was a jerk and got drunk though."  
Jen tsked behind her teeth, crossing one sturdy leg over the other.

"Well, welcome back to crappy pay and a go-nowhere position. I missed my partner-in-depression."

Sutton laughed but looked around, scandalized.

"Jen! Shh!"

Her bold friend just shrugged and began typing away again.

"It's not like it's a secret."

With a roll of her eyes, Sutton began her work as well.

It was eight, mind-melting hours later that she finally made it home. Sanctuary? Pulling up in front of her house, she took a moment to breathe and appreciate that it was still standing. After all, it was a rental. Rummaging through her purse, she pulled out a clip and clamped her brown curls to the back of her head.

"It's show time."

An explosion that rocked her frame welcomed her as she walked through the door. Sutton jumped, her eyes flying to the living room as she tried to identify what had made the noise. Her television was on and a few of the teammates were watching 'Captain America'. She breathed with a hand to her chest and glared. She should have guessed.

"The volume doesn't have to be quite so loud," she suggested, but no one heard her.

She sighed again and then got a good look at her house. Someone had pushed the couches back a few feet and there were blankets and food wrappers strewn about. The pop tarts she'd just bought had been found and demolished.

Shrugging off her purse and dropping it to the floor, Sutton began to try and tidy up a little. Bruce and Tony were still surrounded by equations and scientific nonsense when she shuffled into the kitchen with the trash. She mumbled out,

"Lucy, I'm home."

Bruce looked up and smiled sheepishly when he noticed the clutter.

"Sorry, we haven't done a good job of watching the kids."

Sutton appreciated his dry humor and relaxed a bit.

"Hey, you wouldn't mind if we disassembled a few of your lesser used electronics, would you?"

Sutton's eyes flew over to Tony where he fiddled with her toaster, and then examined the rest of her counter tops.

"What did you destroy?"

Tony put down the toaster and held up his hands in surrender. Sutton snatched up the toaster and cradled it against her breast.

"Hey, nothing. Yet. But you can't expect us to get home without some tech, can you? Speaking of, do you know if this universe has any portable thermo-"

"Probably not," Sutton cut in. She placed the toaster carefully back down in its designated corner. "And if you trash any of my stuff, I expect it to be replaced. I'm poor enough as it is."

"See, Bruce. It's always the plebeians that are the most materialistic."

Tony shook his head sadly; Bruce gave a small smile but remained quiet. Sutton rolled her eyes.

"To think I ever complimented you," she said. "And I'm sorry if I don't have enough money to rebuild and remodel my entire house every time I trash it in a robot brawl or it gets blown up."

Tony's head shot up.

"My house hasn't ever been blown up."

Sutton started and then flushed.

"Oh, you know what! I need to get changed!"

"HEY."

Sutton scurried off to her room, which was gloriously empty, and slammed the door closed. It was nice to be able to breathe. She was really not good at the having company bit. Or the keeping her mouth shut bit either. Sliding out of her skirt and blouse, she pulled on a more comfortable pair of jeans and t-shirt. Sitting on her bed for a moment, she let her eyes close and released her hair from its confines. Her fingers dug into her skull as she tried to ward off a headache before it happened.

Don't stress. No reason to stress. You are fine. Follow mom's advice and 'suck it up'.

"An irritating lot, are they not? I'm sure, now, you may better understand my plight."

Sutton shot off her bed with a short, piercing screech and spun towards her bedroom door. Loki stood blocking it. Just Loki.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Previously: "An irritating lot, are they not? I'm sure, now, you may better understand my plight."
> 
> Sutton shot off her bed with a short, piercing screech and spun towards her bedroom door. Loki stood blocking it. Just Loki.

She could feel her heart step up its tempo.

Tha-thump, tha-thump, this is where you die, tha-thump, tha-thump.

"Mmm," she hummed in terrified agreement. "Well, I should probably go. Make sure they're not...breaking stuff."

She took two shuffling steps forward, but Loki didn't move so she was forced to stop.

"Why leave so soon? I don't believe we've had a chance to converse, mortal."

Sutton waved off the comment, trying to breath in quietly through her nose.

"That's ok! You don't need to worry about it, I'm fine. I should just go make dinner."

"How domestic."

Her face suddenly grew hot.

"Hey! Just because I-"

But at the sight of his pleased face she realized he was goading her and stopped. Her shoulders drooped and she gave a resigned sigh.

"What do you want, Loki? And I don't think I need to remind you that there's a gang of superheroes in my living room."

Loki scoffed at her not-so-subtle threat.

"Your heroes do not concern me at the moment. Come now, let's have a chat."

He gestured for her to have a seat on her own bed. Sutton peered around him at the door.

"If you call out, they will not hear you."

Sutton frowned and swallowed thickly. Finding no other option, she eased over to her mattress and sat down stiffly.

"Now, that wasn't so hard."

She kept her eyes trained straight at the wall; spine erect.

"What is this about? I have nothing you could want."

Loki cocked his head to the side in her peripheral vision, eyebrow raising and a small smirk on his face.

"Oh, I doubt that." Involuntarily Sutton's heart fluttered. "But do not worry. I have not come to collect. Not yet. I simply want to...confirm a theory."

Sutton couldn't help but shoot a glance at him.

"And what theory would that be?" Her voice came out a bit more wobbly than she'd hoped. Loki tsked at her.

"Not yet, not yet. Now just hold still and you will not be harmed."

"What!"

But he was quick, and before she could resist he was right before her. Closer than she would ever be comfortable with. He took the first two fingers of his right hand and placed them to the center of her forehead. And Sutton could not move. An electric pulse had run down her spine, gripping it tightly, and she was paralyzed. She let out a quiet gasp as she tried to escape his pull. It felt like he was pulling something from her. Or searching for something. But no matter how hard she tried she still couldn't move away. Finally, his face broke out in a maniacal grin and he stepped back. Sutton let out a ragged breath and shoved herself off the bed and away from him.

"What did you do?"

"I found what I was looking for," he said curtly.

"And what would that be?"

Loki gave her a savage smile.

"Potential."

The word did not sit well with Sutton, nor did the promise. The room was too small. She was finally able to weasel around the villain and dashed for the door. Loki did not move to stop her.

"Just stay away from me!"

She did not look behind her to see his reaction. She needed to get back out to the living room; with other people. It was with frazzled nerves and a disheveled attitude that she burst into the living room from the hallway. Those who had been watching the movie suddenly paid her mind upon seeing her flushed face and darting eyes roving about the furniture. Sutton found Loki's figure standing in the corner and she quickly looked back down the hall as if that would confirm anything.

"Are you ok?"

Steve stood up first and the others were scrutinizing her thoroughly. Sutton felt the heat rise up into her face. Forcefully, she pointed a finger at the guilty party.

"I'm fine. Just make sure he keeps his hands to himself!"

The group was very suddenly, collectively, on edge. Even Tony and Bruce took a break from their science to investigate. Thor visibly stiffened the most.

"Did he hurt you, Lady Sutton?"

Sutton felt herself deflate at his broken, desperate tone. Loki did not seem to mind that she had outed him.

"No," she said. "Just messing with me."

Loki cooed.

"Oh, but you did seem so fond of me before."

Sutton's red deepened.

"And you were fond of that horse, but no one says anything about that! Besides, I'm a geek, not a psychopath. You're not a good person, as of late."

Those who did understand her horse jab guffawed, but Loki did not look amused.

"Excuse me? Are you referring to your people's pathetic and vile campfire-"

"Ok, enough!"

Natasha stepped out gathering everyone's attention and shot them all a fierce glare.

"We can't let ourselves disband again. Especially not now." Steve nodded.

"She's right. We need to maintain focus. And Thor, you need to keep a closer eye on your brother. We can't have him out loose in this world."

Thor's hand clenched around his hammer until the knuckles rivaled bone. He shot his brother a weary pleading look but it had no visible effect.

"I will," was all he ground out.

Sutton heaved out a heavy, shaky sigh and then shook herself loose.

Move on, change the subject. Too serious, too much, too much.

"Ok, so, any break throughs," she asked the science team.

Tony and Bruce both looked at each other before Tony gestured for Bruce to have a go. The man sighed and swallowed before taking off his glaces and rubbing his eyes.

"Not much," he said. "All we have to work with, really, is theoretical science. Some String Theory. It gets all...wonky when you try to put math to it."

The room grew a bit cooler before Tony stepped up and threw an arm around his friend.

"But no worries. I mean, after all, we are the dream team. And I'm pretty sure Fury can rip a hole through time and space with his rage if we're gone for too long."

Sutton could actually see that happening. She sat in the corner of the far couch as everyone dissipated and tried to think. There had to be a way to help them. Like she could even be of help. Right. Her car ran off magic and gasoline as far as she was concerned. She wouldn't even know where to- Wait a second!

Jumping off the couch she hopped over to the kitchen and pushed herself between Bruce and Tony. Not that she noticed that she was jammed between Iron Man or the Hulk or anything.

"Hey! I had an idea!"

"Oh lord."

Bruce glanced up at Tony verging on reproach and then back to her.

"Yeah?"

Oh this was good. Brilliant even.

"Have you tried looking at any comic books?"

"Excuse me?"

Sutton rolled her eyes and used exaggerated hand gestures to further explain.

"There have been comics where people visit alternate dimensions or parallel universes and if you all use the same comic book science, maybe you can get some info from it."

Tony and Bruce were quiet as they considered her words.

"I mean, feasibly, we might-"

"It's not comic book science. It's science."

Sutton was a bit taken back by how agitated Tony's voice suddenly sounded.

"Yeah, ok," she said.

"Just because your sad little dimension can't figure out how to make it work doesn't mean it's not legitimate. We're not just comic book characters."

Sutton held her hands up in surrender; she felt scolded.

"Noted." She gave an awkward laugh and turned back to Bruce. "So, um, do you think it could help?"

Bruce was a bit hunched as he rubbed his shoulder.

"Maybe. I'd be surprised if there was anything we could use, but anything is worth a shot if we can gain access to it."

Sutton panned back over to Tony a bit slowly. He had one brow raised at her and arms crossed. There would not be any apologies coming from her!

"Should I start Googling stuff, or do you have some sort of algorithm for key phrases?"

Tony waved her off and snorted.

"I'll take care of it, kid. You wouldn't know what to look for anyway."

Sutton rolled her eyes and swiveled around.

There was an still the empty spot on her couch. One glorious, padded seat left. She sank into it. Work didn't seem as much of a chore as this did, and that was saying something.

Thor was keeping a steady eye on Loki as if he hadn't already been before and she was glad. She tried not to think about what Loki said. What it might mean. Sutton pulled her knees up to her chin and rested her head on them. She shuddered and tried to plan for tomorrow. Work, of course. Then what? Errands? Did Radio Shack having anything useful for portals? How weird would that be to ask?

Her phone suddenly went off blasting Skillet. Sutton scrambled up to get it just in case one of her new friends tried to answer it. Usually she'd just let it go to voicemail.

"Hello?"

"Sutton? What the heck happened the other night?"

Sutton groaned as she sank back down into her seat.

"Chase. You were drunk beyond reason, that's what happened."

"No, no, no," her friend argued. "After that. Are you trying to punk me or something?"

"What are you talking about? I dropped you off on your couch like a nice person."

"The next day. Some guys in suits came by and were asking if I'd seen anything odd, but wouldn't explain anything."

Sutton felt herself become instantly covered in a layer of sweat.

"Wha-what? Seriously? Chase? What did they say? What did you tell them?"

Her frantic tone drew in attention, yet again, even Chase noticed it a bit.

"It's ok, I'm fine. I just told them I hadn't seen anything, maybe you had, and they left. They just wouldn't answer my questions. I felt like they were FBI spies or something."

"YOU WHAT."

Sutton choked, coughed, and tried to lighten her voice. It was tight, strained.

"I mean, ha, yeah. So weird. Are you sure you weren't still drunk?"

Please tell me that you were still drunk. Please, please, please.

"No! Don't be jealous that I now have an awesome spy story."

Sutton scoffed lightly while wiping her hands on her jeans.

"Yeah, well, as much as I like a good spy story, I better go. Work wiped me out and I still haven't made dinner yet."

"Yeah, ok. Fine. I'll talk to you later."

"Bye, Chase."

The second Sutton hit the end call button she flew out of her seat and flailed while jumping in a circle.

"Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, oh crap!"

Everyone besides the science bros, who weren't paying attention, looked concerned. Well, Loki looked more disgusted than concerned.

"What's wrong? What happened," asked Steve.

Sutton pulled at her hair and bit her lip.

"Some government thugs came by Chase's house! They were asking if he saw anything weird the night that you guys poofed here!"

Clint and Natasha looked at each other and then back at her wearing faces of slight concern.

"Was he sure," asked Clint. "You said he was drunk."

Sutton was looking off into space and giving herself an ulcer.

"He seemed sure. And he told them to talk to me! Me. They're going to come here and think I kidnapped you or cloned you or something. And I'll end up in a secret government prison and you'll all end up in a lab somewhere underground in North Dakota!"

Natasha shot her partner a look and gestured towards Sutton. Clint looked confused and shrugged. Natasha rolled her eyes and Steve stepped up to the plate and sat down next to Sutton. He awkwardly lifted an arm as if to put it around her shoulders, but then dropped it and looked off to the side.

"Hey, it's ok. Everything will be fine. No one is going anywhere."

The words did not help comfort Sutton. Captain America was an optimist. That was his thing. He was supposed to look on the bright side even if there wasn't one. He was the moral booster. The confident leader. But that wasn't how the real world worked. At least, not Sutton's real world. Here, the bad guys could win. They often did. And maybe now she'd be the weird story on the news of the disappeared young woman who everyone pitied for five seconds before moving on with their life.

She clutched her elbows and closed her eyes while trying to breath.

"Just lie," said Natasha bluntly. "Tell them you didn't see anything and move on."

And, oh, wasn't that just a fabulous idea.

"That would work out wonderfully if I could actually lie to save my life. And what if you guys give off some sort of weird electron energy or something? Like you two." She pointed towards the two extraterrestrials. Thor looked scandalized. He might as well have put a hand daintily to his chest and gasped, "me?"

"They could have spectrometers with them or dogs or those things from Men in Black."

"Ok, just calm down," said Clint. He looked done with the whole situation. "We have more pressing issues to deal with than some potential government officials. I think we could easily take care of them if need be. Pull yourself together, kid."

Why did everyone keep calling her kid?

"I am an adult, thank you."

"Then act like it."

Sutton paused. She breathed. She blushed. The room was quiet as Sutton pulled herself together and as the science team decided to join them to find out what all the hullabaloo was about. Clint was right and she was mad at him for it. So, she needed to stop freaking out. Like that was easy. She wasn't a trained S.H.I.E.L.D agent. She was ordinary. God forbid she have a panic attack. How many panic attacks had she had in the last two days? So, nothing had happened yet? 'Yet' was the key word.

Nothing has happened and you are still alive. If you can survive Loki, you can survive a couple of guys in suits.

What was it that her mom had always said? 'Be what you're longing for'. Be strength, be bravery, be a good friend.

Sutton looked back up at the group of conversing characters and couldn't find words. The Avengers were in her living room. Regardless of Loki, or his ambitions, she had a capable group of people surrounding her to back her up. What could go wrong? Nothing. Perhaps Steve was right. Everything was going to be fine.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A big thank you to the people who've commented and shown interest in this story so far!

Sutton had finally gotten around to making dinner, and the government henchmen still hadn't shown. She relaxed after that, deciding that arriving after dinner hours would be totally rude so they wouldn't do it. Shouldn't, couldn't, right? Maybe if she put up a 'No Soliciting' sign she could have an excuse to not open the door.

She was just going to have to resign herself to the fact that she probably wasn't going to ever get to use her computer again. Usually after work, she'd let herself have an hour or two to just mindlessly surf the web, but no more. No; they might as well have stuck a S.H.I.E.L.D sticker over the logo, or maybe an arc reactor since it glowed. It just felt weird in her own home. Did she ignore them, as they were currently doing to her? Or did she try to connect? Could she force them to love her and become the greatly dreaded Mary-Sue that was so popular? Oh, gosh. She was a Mary-Sue, wasn't she? Oh no, oh no, oh no! No! She couldn't be. Nobody was in love with her yet, right? There had been no eye-molesting by any party, and she didn't have five first names. She had to be safe.

There was a clattering in her kitchen that turned her head, and she looked over cautiously, afraid of what she'd see.

"It's all good," came Tony's voice. "But it'd be easier if you actually owned a screwdriver."

Sutton sat up straighter.

"What did you-"

"Don't worry, it's just the toaster. I haven't even seen you use it."

She only groaned and fell back into her seat. It was too late to save it and too late to care anyway. Her eyes flickered over to her computer once again that was being dominated by the S.H.I.E.L.D agents.

"I hope you're encrypting your searches," she commented a bit tightly. "Because I don't know what it's like in your universe, but the government here sees everything."

Natasha and Clint both just rolled their heads to the side and shot her a droll look before going back to their research. There suddenly popped up what looked suspiciously to be a government database, and Sutton swallowed her tongue and looked away. It was better if she didn't know, she decided.

It seemed like it always came down to the Captain and Asgardians being left out and she wondered why that was. Right now, the two blondes were investigating the mechanics of her DVD player. Loki sat idly with a book; was that her human psychology and mental illnesses book? Probably not good.

"Hey! It lit up!"

Her attention was drawn back in by Steve's triumphant cry, and she couldn't help but grin. He had found out how to turn it on and open the slot for the DVDs. Thor gave him a hearty thump on the back.

"Well done, friend!"

Oh gosh. She should be filming this. Was there a way that she could pretend she'd edited it together? Tumblr would be hers to rule entirely if she could get this online. They'd make gifs about her in her honor!

Her small laugh garnered the brief attention of Loki, she noted. Though he looked more irritated by the two's delve into technology than anything. She made sure to purposefully ignore him.

Steve turned around to see what she'd found amusing and when he realized her gaze was on him, he blushed and ducked his head.

"I haven't had much time or...desire to mess with any of this stuff yet," he tried to explain.

Sutton gave him a grin and then joined the two at the TV set.

"No, it's fine. You just don't see- ...people now days take technology for granted, I think. What are you trying to do anyway?"

Steve took the Captain America DVD out and was trying to put it back in it's case.

"Just trying to clean up, mi- Sutton. And I, I'd really rather not watch it again."

Sutton sobered a bit and looked away guiltily.

"That's understandable," she said.

"Rest easy, Captain," Thor tried to comfort. "You are among friends here."

Steve looked even more embarrassed, so Sutton attempted to change the subject.

"Don't worry about it, Cap," she said. "We'll get you both all caught up on good pop culture. Star Wars, some rock and roll, maybe a little bit of Harry Potter. And I swear to protect you from all things Jersey Shore or MTV in general."

Thor looked more confused at her words than Steve did.

"What is this Jersey Shore we need to be defended from?"

Sutton sighed dramatically.

"Only the lowest that humanity has to offer," she explained. "If they were the shining example of human nature and ability, we would deserve to be ruled by Loki."

Loki's head snapped up from the book as he shot her an unappreciative glower. Sutton tapped her chin in mock thought.

"On second thought," she mused, "maybe you should just give Jersey to Loki to rule. He might actually do it some good."

That earned her a death glare.

"Lady Sutton, you do not understand. My brother would not-"

"Thor. I was kidding." Sutton patted him reassuringly on his bicep. "I don't really think that Loki should rule anything on earth."

Steve looked like he wanted to ask her something but felt uncomfortable about it. So Sutton tilted her head in encouragement.

"If that's so," he began slowly, "then why were you wearing him on your shirt? And why did you have so much to do with him on your computer?"

He shot Loki an uneasy glance, as if maybe they shouldn't be discussing this subject in front of the villain. To Loki's credit, he was doing a very good job of pretending to ignore them for the book.

Seriously though. Did he have to be reading that book? As if he hadn't been creepy enough already.

Two pairs of eyes were suddenly added to the mix and burning into her back from behind the blasted computer. Ah, the question of the century, it seemed. She mimicked Bruce and rubbed wearily at her shoulder.

"Look, first off, I in no way support anything that he did. I think he really could use some counseling. But you also have to understand that it's different here, for us. Until a couple of days ago, you were all just ideas. And there's a disconnect there. We laugh at things that in reality wouldn't be funny; we can have sympathy for villainous characters because we can see where they've come from, but still not root for them to win.

Thor took half a step forward and looked entirely too hopeful for Sutton's comfort level.

"You have hope for my brother, then?"

The muscles in her back stiffened. What was she, a therapist?

"I don't know, Thor," she said carefully. A warning bell in her head was shouting,

Danger, danger, danger!

If she wasn't cautious in her response, Loki would probably gut her where she stood.

"Hurt," her eyes flickered over to Loki's figure. He hadn't moved, but now his violently green eyes were blatantly studying her. She swallowed thickly.

"It doesn't mend easily, or quickly."

And also I haven't seen Thor 2 yet, so I'm not sure exactly what they're doing with his character.

Thor's mood seemed to dampen and Sutton checked the time. She still had work tomorrow.

"Anyway, does anyone need the bathroom before I go to bed?"

The next day at work, Jen had started shooting weird looks at her by lunch. Sutton was surprised it'd taken her that long. Wild, untamed chunks of hair were sticking out of her messy bun and her makeup was almost nonexistent.

"You ok," Jen asked. "You seem out of it today."

Being the only person in the office that Sutton particularly liked, she felt bad lying to Jen. But she wasn't going to be put in a mental hospital or drag her co-worker into this.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"You sure? Because I'm pretty sure you already sent that email; twice."

Sutton snapped out of her daze a choked back a curse as she exited out of her email screen.

"Dang it!"

As if her boss wasn't already condescending enough, she didn't need to give him ammo.

"What's wrong?"

Sutton pushed her chair away from her desk as she rubbed her temples.

"Nothing. I just didn't get much sleep last night. I kept waking up."  
It was enough to convince her friend because it was partly the truth.

"Maybe it's time you get a new mattress," Jen suggested.

Sutton let out a bitter laugh.

"You have no idea."

But she knew that the mattress hadn't been the issue. She'd slept on worse for longer. Her dreams last night had kept her up, even if she couldn't quite remember them. All she knew was that there had been darkness, a lonely feeling, fear, and then she'd awaken. Again and again and again. She hadn't had a real nightmare since she was a child, and she felt like it wasn't a coincidence that she'd suddenly gotten last night.

Hopefully it was only a one time thing. Payback, maybe, for making him seem so vulnerable. There wasn't much she could do about it even if it became a regular occurrence. It would only cause the others unnecessary distress and distract them from their goal of getting home. Besides, how do you keep someone from getting inside your head? She had a feeling that Harry Potter spells couldn't help her here.

Her computer pinged with a message and her eyes rolled toward the ceiling as she read the snarky reply from her boss.

'Got it, Sutton. Don't need to send it a third time. I don't think the issue is quite that pressing'

Sutton couldn't decide if it was worse here or at home.

Home. Home was definitely worse. Sutton could feel her heart do a double backflip, barrel roll, and a cartwheel when she pulled up to her driveway. There was already a car there. Sleek, black, a sedan. It practically screamed,

Hi, we're a shady unknown branch from the government!

And there were two figures sitting inside, supposedly waiting for her. Sutton eased out of her own car and slipped her car, house, and mailbox keys between her fingers in a lame imitation of brass knuckles.

If she wasn't placed in a secret underground government prison, she was going to end up in a regular one for sure, because she was going to kill Chase.

The doors of the sedan clicked open smoothly and both figures stepped out. One was a man: casual slacks, button down and blazer, easy smile. His hair was too perfect. Too blond. The second person was a woman: dark hair up, pencil skirt, lowered brows. She stood stiffly, her lips were pressed together a tad too tightly.

Sutton swallowed what little moisture she had in her throat and tried not to squeak as she spoke.

"Excuse me. Can I help you? You-you can't solicit here."

That would make her seem innocent, right? Assume they're vacuum salesmen or evangelists first.

If you don't know why they're here, you didn't see anything.

"And I already go to church," she added.

The man grinned too widely at her, teeth too white and straight, and stepped forward to meet her. Sutton took a step back in response.

"Oh, no, no. None of that," he assured her. It wasn't reassuring at all. "My name is Matthew Johnson and this is my partner, Alyssa McKenzie. We'd just like to ask you a few questions about your evening a couple nights ago."

Sutton froze under their gazes. The woman was staring at her too intently. She tried to muster up some righteous anger.

"What is this about," she tried to snap. That hadn't sounded desperate, had it? Had her voice lilted too much? "Who are you people?"

The man held up his hands in a nonthreatening gesture of surrender.

"We're from the Department of Investigations, and we just want to ask you a few questions."


	6. Chapter 6

Sutton narrowed her eyes. Department of Investigations. Of what? From where? That had to be the vaguest title she'd ever heard. How dumb did they think she was? The woman finally stepped up and spoke, pulling a badge out of her pocket.

"You aren't in any trouble or danger," she explained showing Sutton her qualifications. "We simply want to conduct a quick interview and we'll be on our way."

The badge, admittedly, looked extremely authentic. Although, she didn't get to study it too closely because the woman claiming to be Alyssa McKenzie quickly tucked it back away.

They didn't seem like they'd be able to be persuaded to leave. The man was still grinning at her too widely for the occasion, and it was starting to freak her out.

"Ok, fine, what?"  
"It might be more comfortable inside," he suggested. But it didn't seem like one. "We'll be out of your hair in no time."

After a brief hesitation, Sutton breathed out her nose and walked slowly to her front door. She had to be loud. Loud-ish. Let the others know that maybe something was up and maybe they could madly scramble out of view. She made sure to fumble with the lock slightly before opening it.

"This thing always jams," she muttered audibly.

Then she held her breath, sent up a prayer, and opened her door. She almost gasped, but managed to contain it.

Her house was pristine. Clean, smelling of day old cleaners, and was empty. Blissfully silent. A smile almost wormed up her face, but she fought to keep it under wraps. Holding open the door, she ushered them in.

"You caught me on a good day," she remarked. "I got some house work done this weekend."

The man smiled indulgently and the woman gave her a close-lipped nod. Sutton did not offer them drinks or hors d'oeuvres. She made sure that they went directly to her couch and did not pass GO or collect two hundred dollars. The living room was the only safe place for them; she could practically feel it.

"So, how can I help you?"

Straight to business. Get them in and out cleanly and quickly.

Lie, lie, lie.

The woman had a pad of paper and a pen, and she settled it in her lap as the man began speaking.

"The evening in question is the night of March thirtieth," he confirmed. "Specifically, in the region of Puyallup."

Sutton's heart was palpitating and she wiped her palms on her jeans. The woman wrote something on her paper and Sutton stopped.

"Can you confirm that you were in the area around midnight?"  
Sutton pretended to think about it.

Why hadn't she watched a few episodes of 'Lie To Me' before today?

"Briefly," she said. "I had to drop off my friend at his house."

Wrap the lie in some truth, yeah. That's it. That's what Jason Bourne said!

"Right," the man said. He was still grinning. Did he know how terrifying that was? It was making her feel the opposite of safe. Like he might jump up at any moment and tear her face off. Who'd trained these people?

"Chase Freeman, correct? You drove because he was intoxicated."

Sutton felt herself lean away from the pair slightly.

"Yeah," she drawled.

"And did you see anything unusual after you dropped him off at his home?"

Sutton remained quiet for a moment while biting her lip.

"Um, no? There were a few other cars out on the road? One had their brights on. I remember because it blinded me for a second."

The man's smile slipped slightly and that was almost scarier than before. The woman jotted a note.

Think, think, think. What would be her first assumption if she didn't actually know anything?

"What's this about," she asked. And then it came to her. "Oh gosh, this isn't about a terrorist attack, is it? Are they going after the Space Needle?"

Because being in Puyallup totally made sense for that scenario. Oh well, let them think her dense.

"No," the man assured again. But his voice was slightly more strained. "Not a terrorist attack. I'm afraid we can't give out details. But I'm going to have to ask that you really think back to that night. If anything comes to you, we need to know about it."

Sutton's heart spiked and she stiffened despite her best efforts. She'd lied! She'd told them no, now they were supposed to believe her and leave!

"Miss Regan," he pressed.

"Mr.-" What was his name? Something ordinary. "Johnson, I-"

Her attention was suddenly stolen by a figure emerging from her hallway. The government goons heard the footsteps too and all eyes turned to the man who entered her living room. He was drying off wet hair with a towel and wearing only jeans.

What the hey-howdy hey?

He seemed to finally feel the stares, because he looked up and seemed surprised.

"Oh, hey."

Sutton felt her blood run cold once again.

He had green eyes. His face was softer, body a bit more thick, and hair lighter, sure, but she still knew.

The two officials on her couch looked irritated at the interruption, which she could only guess meant irate to them.

Sutton was trying very hard not to stare. Trying so valiantly, so nobly, to keep an eye on the shady officials. But it was really, really hard. She didn't even like ogling. It was always a fear that people would think she was checking them out when she was really just trying to see the way fabric crinkled or muscles bunched for drawing references. But not now. Now she was just staring. Because a tiny bead of water had just run down his throat and over his clavicle and she really didn't care what the light looked like bouncing off the water's reflective surface.

Mentally, she slapped her self. Twice.

No. Stop it! He is not Tom Hiddleston and he is not a piece of meat! You are better than this!

The man with the towel looked over to her as if perplexed. And my, was his confusion believable.

"Babe," he said. "What's going on?"

And his voice was a bit raspier, she noticed. But it was still like honey. Sutton swallowed.

"Sorry," she said despite feeling like her tongue was sticky. "I didn't know they were coming over either."

His gaze held so much genuine concern for her that she almost believed it. Almost. Woe was the day when she trusted the Lie-smith more than her own government! But that wasn't really saying much.

She stood up and cautiously moved over to his disguised form.

"They keep asking me weird questions. I already told them I don't know anything."

She tried to sound like she was going to him for support. What she wouldn't give for a fourth of his lying capabilities! His eyes narrowed and he turned to the two.

"Hey, do you guys have a warrant or probable cause to be harassing her?"

There were no longer falsely friendly smiles on either of their faces. Loki placed an arm loosely around her shoulders and she kept herself from flinching. Just barely. His skin was cool.

But also very soft.

Wait, nope.

NOT Tom Hiddleston! Gosh darn it, remember your steps! Step two: don't purposefully seek him out.

"It was simply an inquiry," the woman said tightly.

They got up from her couch when neither Loki or she moved to respond, and they travelled stiffly to her door. Sutton almost smirked in victory at their retreating figures.

"Thank you for your...cooperation, Miss Regan," Johnson intoned, seeming not so genuine. He set a small white card on her entry way door before stepping through. "In case you remember anything," he said.

And then they were gone. Loki's arm was ripped from her person and she looked over nervously only to find him back to his normal self. Fully clothed.

Thank the lord.

She let out a shaky breath and noticed that everyone was trickling out from down the hall. Wait, not everyone. Someone was missing. Where was Hawkeye?

"You really are a terrible liar," Natasha commented blandly.

"So bad," continued Tony, "that we were forced to send Loki out to save you. And you can imagine how desperate we would have let it get before then."

Sutton felt herself shrink under their gazes, feeling wholly inadequate. If they were so smart, why didn't they just let Loki pretend to be her! Maybe she couldn't lie, but she was obviously the one with the brains here.

"Yeah, well, I tried," she shot back. "I told you all it wouldn't end well."

The image of that man's smiling mask was still haunting her and her eyes darted to Loki. She was tempted to ask if he'd like some hand sanitizer for having to touch her mortal-self by the look on his face. She could be the bigger person here. Figuratively, that is. There was no way she was going to grow another foot after all these years. She'd given up on hope of a growth spurt years ago.

Be the bigger person. Be nice. Maybe you'll get some sleep tonight. Maybe he'll forget about the little 'potential-whatever' incident.

"Thank you," she said stiltedly. "Even if they told you to do it, I-I, it was appreciated."

Loki sniffed dismissively and turned his head away.

"You are a worse liar than even Thor."

Ok, ouch.

Well, at least she could say she'd gotten Loki to agree with the Avengers on one thing.

"But I feel like it was unnecessary for you to come out all half naked," she accused.

"Oh, that was just a bit of fun."

Let it go, don't enable him. Why would she care if two federal thugs thought she lived and slept with a guy without being married? Who cared what they thought? So what.

Her front door suddenly opened and Hawkeye stepped through, replacing his bow across his chest.

"Where were you?"

"Out," he said.

Sutton's eyes flickered to her windows and scanned around her house.

"Were you up in my trees or on the roof or something?"

"I see better from a distance."

Clint smiled at his reference to himself and Sutton rolled her eyes.

"And if those two agents were any good at all, we'll have a problem. I could see you sweating from fifty feet away."

"Ok, ok! I suck at lying, I get it! What I don't get is all this." She gestured to her house in general. "You knew they were coming? You cleaned my house?"

They knew the agents were coming and still didn't pull a temporary body-snatcher type move? Just more proof that they needed her brain skills.

Bruce shrugged and fiddled with his glasses.

"To be fair, we had also made...a bit of a mess too."

"Natasha and Clint were able to intercept their travel plans from their database," explained Steve.  
Tony stood with crossed arms and rolled his eyes.

"Yeah. With help from my algorithm and virus."

Steve shot him an irritated look.  
"And here I thought that you had learned that not everything is about you."

"I'm sorry, who is the public demanding more movies from?"

Oh good heavens, no. They could not be using her universe's love and devotion to justify themselves.

"Well," she cut in forcefully, "I'm grateful that you worked as a team to get this done."

They all looked knowingly at her attempt to snuff out any conflict.

"Thanks, nanny," Tony quipped.

"No problem, Lite Brite."

His lip twitched up at her rebuttal and Sutton tried not to glow at it.

Gosh, she'd been waiting so long to use that nickname.

She hoped that they didn't expect that level of wit from her from now on.

And apparently they were now having an impromptu meeting, because they all gathered in her living room in a semi-circle.

Sutton was done with meetings. She was done with today. Her adrenaline spike was wearing off and now she felt even more exhausted than before. Her eyeballs were going to fall off. But she joined them anyway, because she was a team player, dang it, and this was her house, and Loki was watching her slow blinks and grinning like they were the world's best joke.

"Sleep well," he purred in question quietly when she was forced to pass him.

Any faint, tinges of doubt about the source of her nightmare were dashed. Sutton shot him a glare before she could stop herself and tried to recover.

"Like a rock."

It wasn't like she had bags under her eyes or that everyone had just made it painfully clear that she literally couldn't lie to save her life. The only response she got was a self-satisfied smile. Maybe tonight she'd try sleeping in a tinfoil hat. She wasn't even joking with herself.

Her coffee table became the new Avengers conference table and Sutton noticed some files and something with wires being set out for all to examine. Her interest was perked, and she attempted to lean forward to focus through the haze forming in her head. It looked like they already had information on whatever organization had sent their people out to talk to her. And it seemed as if Tony and Bruce had come up with some odd, dangerous looking metal...thing. all she knew was that it was crude looking with wires going every which way.

"What is that," she asked, pointing to it.  
Tony wagged a finger at her.

"Ah, ah, ah, small fry. Dinner and then dessert."

She didn't even have the energy to roll her eyes, so she just shifted her dwindling attention to whoever was speaking next. Even though she knew pretty well that it had probably been Natasha and Clint to do the snooping in intel collection, Steve was taking the role as spokesman.

"Clint and Natasha found all they could on this organization," he started.

"All that exists," Clint corrected.

"And that isn't much," Natasha added.

Steve took their interruptions in stride. Definitely a great leader. With a very heroic jaw. Sutton had a nicely angled view of it from her seated position.

"They seem to deal with cases that are highly sensitive or...abnormal."

Sutton fought through the thickening sludge in her head and puckered her brow.

"Are we talking like, Al Qaeda is using a daycare as a front, abnormal or Area 51, abnormal?"

Bruce sputtered a bit and Tony let out one sharp laugh.

Ah, yeah. That's right. Revel in her comedic genius.

"Al Qaeda and a daycare? Where are you getting this from?"

"Area 51," Steve questioned.

"Yeah, aliens crashing, not Thor. You might've just missed it," she explained. "So? Are they X-Files, or..."

"Not quite." Natasha leaned forward to join the discussion and take over explanations.

She sure did sit next to Clint a lot. Sutton smiled to herself, her eyes closing a bit.

Clintasha feels.

She finally realized she was getting weird looks from around the room and shook her head while gesturing for them to continue.

Oh gosh, she needed to go to bed. Like, half an hour ago. She was going to start doing stupid things soon.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Sorry for the delay, I got busy and forgot to upload this chapter when I'd planned. Thanks for the kudos and comments! They're much appreciated! :)

Natasha continued her explanation.

"They deal with unusual national security threats. Ones that haven't ever been experienced or properly identified. I can imagine the energy given off by us being transported here set off their radar."

"So," Sutton dropped her head into her hands and closed her eyes.

_Oh, sweet, sweet, sleep._

"They actually do believe I'm part of some terrorist plot. Great."

"Luckily for you," Tony piped in, "you have the cleanest record here besides Capsicle. Not so much as a parking ticket."

That woke her up a little bit.

"Did you dig through my personal records?"

"Just kind of, like, _glanced_. Thoroughly."

Some anger managed to lick up some of her exhaustion.

"That's none of your business," she snapped.

"Well, maybe not," Bruce cut in levelly. "But you do kind of have _our_ lives plastered, well, _everywhere_."

It wasn't the same! It didn't- it didn't count. They couldn't hold her responsible for knowing things about them when last week it hadn't been considered...prying. There were some things about her that she'd rather keep under wraps if she could. If it wasn't too late already.

"You wrecked my toaster," she whined back instead. "I had just gotten the settings perfect and everything."

"So we're even," Tony concluded. "And speaking of your late toaster, I present to you, _dessert_."

And with a flourish that rivaled Vanna White, he gestured to his odd little creation and grinned widely. Sutton just stared at it blankly before her eyes floated back up to him.

"What is it?"

What was it indeed. It wasn't even that big, maybe the size of a large apple. And very, very homemade looking. Like, maybe Tony from fourth grade had made this. She could identify different bits of her toaster, some wiring, but other parts had her wondering where'd he'd secured them. She would have to do a thorough inventory of her electronics tomorrow.

"It's progress," Tony declared.

"With my toaster?"

Tony waved her off.

"We needed the heating coils and your house isn't exactly well equipped for genius work."

"What does it do," Sutton reiterated. And it looked like this was the devices first reveal, because everyone who wasn't Tony or Bruce leaned forward in their seat.

"Well, not much right now, admittedly."

"It's kind of...a prototype," Bruce offered. "We think that since there's so much that's identical about our universes, there may be a commonality that we can quantify. If we can do that, then maybe we can isolate the differences and reorder them."

It was quiet. Sutton had no idea what he was talking about. At all. The words swirled around her brain as she tied to grasp the meaning behind them. They had been in English, she was sure. She knew what they all meant by themselves.

_Just...what?_

She either said that out loud or her face spoke for her because Tony jumped in to dumb it down for everyone.

"What the Big Guy is saying, is that we think that maybe we all occupy the same earth, just on different frequencies."

It was quiet a moment longer.

"Like a radio," Steve chimed in.

_Ah, Steve. Adorable little radio missing, Steve._

"More or less," Tony agreed. "And if we can find out our different frequencies, we can realign them correctly."

"And that is what the franken-toaster is for?"

It did not look like a radio wave identifier-thing to Sutton. It looked more like a potentially explosive mini motherboard.  
Bruce smiled lightly at the name and reached down to tweak with one of the wires.

"Actually, assuming our theory is correct, this would be the start of a device that would separate the frequencies and send us back. But it still needs a lot of work."

"A lot."

Tony and Bruce shared a look that spoke of some inside joke, and Sutton let it pass despite hating inside jokes that she wasn't part of.

_Ugh. Speaking of jokes._ _  
_ _Knock, knock._ _  
_ _Who's there?_ _  
_ _Guess who everyone expects to cook for them?_ _  
_ _Guess wh- Oh._

She still hadn't made dinner. Attempting to lift an arm, she watched as it flopped back down next to her after only making it six inches. Nope. Not happening tonight.

"Well, I'm ordering pizza," she said suddenly. "Does anyone have any allergies and, or preferences?"

Tony answered the door for the pizza guy. In his Ironman suit. Because why not, what could possibly happen, and I'm bored let me mess with someone. It was one of the single most greatest things Sutton had ever witnessed. She was glad she was awake for it. The look on that kid's face when he had come toe-to-toe with the gold and red was priceless. He'd stopped reading over the ridiculous order in monotone and almost choked and dropped the pizza. Sutton had sworn that his eyes would be pushed from their sockets. After the boy had gapped a bit like a mute, hungry bird, he had broke into the hugest grin and proclaimed,

"Dude! You are freaking legit! You just made my whole night!"

"Yeah, I get that a lot."

The kid had laughed at that before telling them the costume was so ridiculously awesome that he didn't even need a tip.

But he still took it, of course.

Sutton had shut the door on him before he could see the others, or start asking questions about how they'd made the suit to look so real.

Everyone was relatively quiet as they ate their fill. Although Thor did loudly announce that he liked this _Midgardian_ _pi-zha_ , before grabbing another slice. Thankfully, he didn't cram it into her carpet.

Sutton was not entirely proud of herself. But for once, she was thankful that everyone was ignoring her as she snuck a roll of tin foil in with her to bed. She was desperate, ok? And part of her just really, really wanted to see if it would actually work.

_Sutton Regan: Myth buster._

It wasn't sad. It was for science!

She quickly threw on her pajamas and crudely fashioned a bowl of a hat before shoving it on her head and collapsing onto her air mattress. It felt really good just to have her eyes closed. And to pretend she was alone. And that the government wasn't watching her for acts of terrorism.

But it didn't last long.

Just as she'd fall asleep, for maybe a few minutes, she'd be awoken. The nightmares hit her a bit harder this time, more relentless. There was a bit more to them now; the color red and bursts of intense heat. By two in the morning she'd angrily balled up the tin foil and flung it across the bathroom.

_Myth: busted._

And she did try to just fall back asleep. She tried telling herself to just sleep through the nightmare, as if she had any control over it. But to no avail.

The lack of sleep had her so angry that she had half a mind to go into her roommate's room and punch Loki square in the face. What had she ever done to him! Luckily, she still had half a brain telling her that would be a very poor decision to make. She felt like crying from frustration. But the crying only made her eyes hotter and that much more miserable.

Instead she just sat in the corner of her tub bed, balled up in her blankets and a daze.

By six am, she knew that she wasn't going to work. Jen would definitely know something was up if Sutton just stared uselessly at her monitor all day. So she crawled out of the bathtub, stumbled to the door, and dragged herself over to one of her cordless phones to call in sick.

It spoke of her exhaustion that she only noticed the three figures after she'd already hung up the phone. Tony and Bruce were paused over paperwork staring at her. Tony had a towel draped around his neck as if he were preparing for a shower. Probably for after she left, she realized. Clint was perched on her counter top on the other side of the kitchen. One leg dangled off the edge and swung easily, lightly tapping at the cabinets below.

"Small Fry?"

Sutton rubbed at her eyes and tried to blink widely as if that would wake her up.

"Hey, guys."

Bruce stepped around the counter and approached her. Sutton suddenly remembered that she'd come out here straight from bed. She was still in her pajamas. She was not wearing a bra, not that it made much of a difference. Luckily, she hadn't been able to detangle herself from one of the blankets, and she pulled it up over her shoulders and tightened it there. Leaning down to be her height, Bruce examined her eyes and quickly felt her forehead.

"You don't have a fever," he said.

_Was he even that kind of a doctor? What was he, the illness police?_

Sutton stepped back and turned her head to the side.

"Just having a bit of trouble falling asleep," she said gently. "The, um, mattress probably needs more air in it."

The quiet thudding that Clint's leg had been making on her cupboards stopped.

"You have several tells, when you're lying," Clint commented quietly. She felt a shiver down her spine. It was kind of eerie. Him sitting in the dim kitchen, arms casually crossed, ominous voice. "You can't maintain any eye contact, for one."

Sutton made sure to face him.

"I'm not lying. Look at me. I'm not sure what other signs of sleep deprivation I can give!"

"Oh. So, it is the mattress. I'm sorry."

Sutton looked away again. Realization poked at her, and she quickly tried to turn back to him, but he was already smiling grimly.

She just wanted to collapse on the floor, wrapped up like a sad little burrito, and not wake up until tomorrow. Or until she got hungry. She wanted a happy Disney movie marathon with snacks and her best friend from sixth grade, Lorie McDonald, who laughed like the world was always a happy place.

"What are you not telling us, Small Fry? You weren't that attached to your toaster, were you?"

Sutton smiled slightly.

"The death of my favorite toaster will haunt me forever. What are you working on now?"

And she wanted to think maybe Tony was just oblivious and couldn't read her facial cues; but he settled her with a look, tilted his head in a barely recognizable nod, and shuffled the paperwork in front of him. Perhaps he was already suffering from nightmares too. Or maybe he just related to that desperate look of needing to change the subject.

Bruce adjusted to the abrupt flow of the conversation like water, but Sutton could still feel Clint's hard gaze studying her.

It really wasn't a big deal. They didn't need to know. She was just tired. That was it. She'd been tired before.

"Well, we're still working on the math for all this _wonky_ science," Tony said suddenly animated. "Katniss over here just wanted to be part of the slumber party. He was supposed to supply the snacks, but he's claiming Thoreal ate them all."

Sutton rubbed in face in exasperation while Clint's facial expression never changed.

"Ok, how much of this is authentically from you, and how much is from tumblr?"

Tony shifted his head from side to side and made a face that said _'eh, maybe a little bit_ _'_.

"You guys have got to stop looking yourselves up on the internet. That can't be healthy."

"Too late for that."

"It's definitely...enlightening," Bruce commented.

"The Avengers... _fandom_ , has serious mental issues," Clint said dryly.

"Agreed," Sutton sighed. "But all fandoms usually do."

Her legs were like jelly now. She needed to sit down, just for a second. After excusing herself and giving them all a nod, she shuffled back into the living room and dropped herself on one of the couches. It smelled like a guy's aftershave. With her head resting over the top, she closed her eyes and breathed deeply. Her spine relaxed from the top down, and then she finally fell asleep.

Sutton woke back up around noon. Everyone was awake and about. She flushed immediately upon noticing she was still sprawled across the couch and improperly dressed.

_Oh gosh, she probably slept with her mouth open and drooled and made weird noises and now they knew!_

It felt like when you stay over at a friends house and then wake up to find the entire family making breakfast in the kitchen and then they're condescendingly cooing,

_'Well good morning, sleepy head.'_

While it was still eight o'clock. Because they were obviously the 'Leave It to Beaver' family, and you were the weird kid they let come over.  
Not that that had ever happened to her before or anything.

She scurried from the couch to her empty room for clothes and then a quick shower before anyone could really study her hair that was blatantly trying to defy gravity. And she was showered and ready for the day in only seventeen minutes. Most assuredly a new record for her. Although, to be fair, she'd skipped out shaving her legs for a pair of jeans.

The sleep and the shower combined really did wonders for her; she almost felt like herself pre-Avengers. Except a bit more self conscious. But it was nice to have actual, breathing people in her house. It made her feel social.

And then they had to go and ruin the happy feelings the moment she entered the kitchen for some lunch.

"Was there any particular reason for the tin foil in the bathroom? Just asking, because none of us brought it in with us to shower. Unless Thor was touching up his highlights."

Sutton whipped around to find herself alone in the kitchen with Tony. Where had everyone gone off to? She craned her head around to peer around him and could see a few people in the living room, seemingly deaf to the conversation.

"Not really," she said dismissively. But she could feel the heat rising from her neck to her forehead. There was no way she would ever tell them what the tin foil was for. She'd never live it down.

Tony gave her a look and hopped up to sit on her counter in the most relaxed position possible. What would her roommate do if she told her Tony Stark's butt had graced their counter top? Probably gasp, fan herself, and the lysol it off. If there was one thing that Victoria was, it was clean. Actually, she'd probably get a bigger reaction from telling her that Hawkeye's butt had been on their counter. Victoria always claimed that Jeremy Renner was her 'old man crush'.

"Ah-huh," Tony continued. "What's up, kid? You were just dead on the couch for about five hours. We were making bets on how much we could stack on top of you before you woke up."

"Did they send you in here alone to try and disarm me with your wit and charm, so I'd feel more comfortable and 'fess up to you?"

"Ah-ha! So you do have something to confess. My interrogative charms are obviously irresistible."

Sutton rolled her eyes.

"Why do you all care so much about my sleep habits? You've known me for, like, three days."

Tony shrugged.

"Because we're superheroes. It's our job. And I also really want to know why you snuck tin foil in the bathroom. It strikes me as very ' _Signs'-_ ish."

He could not know how close to the truth that actually was. Sutton forced herself to laugh.

"I'm afraid you'll have to get used to disappointment."

And she was saved from anything else because her house phone started to ring and she darted to answer it. The number was definitely out of state, and Sutton answered it suddenly cautious of the bill that could be racked up.

"Hello?"

"Sutton! Oh, you're actually home! I was just going to leave a message."

"Called in sick today," she explained. "How's Australia?"

"Fantastic! You would love it!"

Sutton tried very hard not to sound bitter.

"I'm sure I would have."

"Maybe we can come back together some time," Vicki suggested. Even though it was plain that would never happen. "But anyway. I was just calling to see how you were doing. You're not just staying in the house by yourself all the time, right?"

Sutton rolled her eyes. She was not as socially retarded as Vicki liked to think. She had friends and family. She had just been too... _busy_ these last couple days to think about calling them. A thought came to her and she grinned mischievously to herself.

"Nope. Actually," she sauntered into the living room and flopped down next to Clint. Payback time in the form of a fake joke. Well, kind of. It was as close as she'd ever get.

"I'm sitting here with Jeremy Renner, so I'm quite content."

"Get off the computer, dork, and go outside."

"No really, he's sitting on the couch right next to me."

"Ah-huh."

"Want to say hi?"

Clint was shooting her unappreciative glances from next to her. Sutton just grinned innocently at him.

"Sutton, if you actually had Jeremy Renner on your couch you know I would fly back home just to murder you."

Oh, she really wanted him to say something on the phone now.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sutton takes Tony and Bruce out on an errand. Her day just goes downhill from there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to wellsee21 and bleedxlikexme for their continued encouragement!

The phone call had been highly amusing, especially when Clint had actually relented and spoke a few lines to send her friend over the edge. Oh, yes. It had definitely been worth what little risk there was. Vicki wouldn't ever _truly_ believe she had some celebrity in their house. But it was deviously pleasurable to make her wonder.

And then Tony had demanded that he and Bruce accompany her on her errand run, because she obviously couldn't have read a list had he given her one. He was oddly persuasive even without flirting. That, or Sutton was just a big fat pushover. It was really, really hard to say no to superheroes. Especially when he did make the point that she could hardly tell the difference between an Ethernet and HDMI cable.

Sutton shot Tony an irritated look as he directed her where to go using her phone that quite suddenly had GPS that was actually accurate. Suspicious, but she wasn't going to complain. She realized now how people could possibly find him irksome.

_Did he always have to win everything?_

"Turn left here," he directed as they pulled into a shopping center.  
Following his directions, she hit her blinker and pulled into the turn lane. Apparently, her town actually had an electronics hobby shop.

_Huh, you learn something new every day._

It looked locally owned. Sutton let out a little whimper for her poor debit card. After she parked, Sutton hesitated before exiting the vehicle.  
"Ok, here we go," she said. "You guys do not take off those hats or shades, ok? Tony, no quips or sass. Channel your inner Bruce. And if anyone mentions the goatee, tell them you're saving it for May third."

"That's oddly specific. Something me-centric is happening, I'm guessing."

"Third movie," Bruce guessed.

"Bingo. All right. Let's be quick about this."

They all jumped out of her car at the same time and entered the store, setting off a jingle as a bell tied to the door bounced back and forth. And though it pained her to think it, Tony was right again. Because she did not know what half of the stuff in here was called. Or what it did.

_Oh, wait, no! Look, a screwdriver!_   
_Nailed it._

Tony and Bruce immediately immersed themselves in the job of gathering anything that could possibly be of use.

"I never thought I'd be so happy to see a soldering gun," Tony mumbled. "Do you know how hard it was to use your-"

Sutton snapped her gaze to him, eyes alight.

"You know what, never mind."

Yes. Today she was definitely doing a household inventory. But right now her attention was focused on the other people in the shop; which wasn't many to be honest. The man behind the counter was eyeing them a bit suspiciously. Sutton was going to ask him what his problem was, but then remembered Bruce and Tony were wearing shades and ball caps inside. With hoodies. So she remained quiet.

The longer they stayed, the more anxious she grew. She watched as one guy did a double take, stare, shake his head, and then walk off.

_Too close, too close!_

Not to mention that it looked like Tony and Bruce were buying out half the store. Tony Stark was going to owe her so much money. Was it possible to do inter-universe money wires?

Eventually, both men dropped their purchases on the counter and Tony sighed.

"Well, that'll have to do for now, I guess."

And Sutton was glad that it would, because as they left to fill up her car with their stuff, she was left to foot the bill. She almost passed out. Seriously, she almost didn't let the guy take her card. She hadn't spent that much money at once since, since the last time she'd bought college textbooks! And she wasn't even able to go back to college right now, so what did that tell you?

Bruce and Tony re-entered the shop as if they were all gentlemanly and wanted to escort her out just as the guy had finished handing her the receipt. The man eyeballed Tony as Sutton made her way over to them.

"Hey," he called out.

Sutton's heart froze as they all turned around. The cashier seemed to be studying them closer. She could feel the sweat start to trickle down.

_They were going to have to make a break for it in 3...2..._

"Nice goatee."

Tony grinned widely and spared a glance at Sutton.

"Waiting for May third," he responded obediently.

The cashier considered his words, as if trying to remember the significance and then smiled.

"Oh yeah! Ironman is going to have the crap beat out of him!"

Tony's reply skipped a beat.

"Wait, excuse me?"

"We should get home!"

Sutton had to literally shove both men out the door and to her car. Tony seemed a bit robotic. Drat it! She really didn't want to have to deal with a moody Iron Man. As she drove away and back towards home, she tried to make conversation despite the tension in the car.

"So, did you get everything you needed?"

"Well-"

"What the heck was he talking about," Tony cut in sharply. "You hadn't even mentioned another movie coming out before."

His voice was so accusatory that it made Sutton tense up and prickle.

"You have internet access eight hours a day without me being able to do anything about it. And it's not like I've been able to stop any of you when you wanted to do anything as it is. It's not my fault you haven't done any research."

"Yeah, well, been kinda busy if you haven't noticed. Were you never going to say anything? You were just going to let us all go back to whatever is waiting for us?"

"I don't know anything else," Sutton snapped. She sighed and gazed out over the road, as if what she was going to admit next would only worsen the situation.

"All I know is what the trailer has shown."

"Apparently that's enough to know I'm going to get the, what was it, crap beat out of me?"

"What did you think another movie would entail," she shot back. "You and Pepper on vacation, walking the boardwalk for two hours? You won't die or anything," she consoled, fairly confident in her claim. "You're Iron Man."

Tony threw up his hands as if he was one thousand percent done with her.

"Oh, well isn't that just a big relief. That's what you were talking about with my house, wasn't it? My house gets blown up next!"

The continued argument that lasted the entire car ride was put to an abrupt halt by Natasha the second they all stepped through the front door.

"Are you an idiot?"

Sutton paused at the politely toned insult.

"Excuse me?"

Natasha's gaze was ice as she eyed Sutton and the accompanying bags of supplies the trio had carted in.

"You purchased all of this with your bank card."

Sutton's gaze remained perplexed.

"Yeah. There was no way I had the amount in cash that this came to."

The only sign that Sutton could see that indicated Natasha might be fed up with her was a quick quirk of the eyebrow.

"And it didn't occur to you that maybe now your accounts and purchases might be being monitored by the very people you lied to?"

Sutton's face grew cold.

"So 's your house," Clint added. "And you just walked through the front door with a butt load of electronics and two hooded men."

Sutton tried to remind herself to breathe.

Holy crap. She, she was being watched? She'd always kind of known that the government had their fingers in everything and eyes everywhere. She joked about it with people. But it never occurred to her that she might be the focus of that attention. It never occurred to her that it was something to actually worry about.  
The bags dropped from her grip as she swayed slightly where she stood.

"I, I, I-"

Thor had been standing guard near the front door when they entered, and he reached out to support her with his forearm. Sutton clutched at it like it were a steel beam and everything else was made of cotton candy.

"I need to sit down," she finally managed.

Thor, always a gentleman, helped her over to the sofa upon which she collapsed.  
Holy cow. How many times had she watched spy movies or thrillers? How often did she scoff at the stupid negligence of one scrambling character? It was always so obvious.

The news was quietly playing and Sutton stared slightly past the TV and tried to process what her life might be like now.

"Don't worry," said Steve. "We won't let anything happen to you. Not on our account."

"No." Sutton tensed at the honeyed voice drifting from the corner. "Never."

"Loki," Thor warned. "Now is not the time for your games."

There was ice in Loki's eyes for a moment as he shot a menacing glare at his adopted brother, but then he turned back to Sutton and grinned slyly.

"You're right. It's not the time."

Her day was just not getting any better.

The TV continued to murmur and Natasha took back over the reins of the conversation. Tony and Bruce were both a bit hunched, looking like they should have thought of the debit card issue beforehand.

"You have to be careful now," Natasha explained a touch more gently. "There are things you aren't going to be able to do."

"I can hack into their database again," offered Tony. "We can delete the evidence."

Clint looked up from his spot on the couch in front of the computer.

"And let them know she does have help. People with connections? _No_ , that won't condemn her at all."

Sutton was still wearily staring at the television. They were droning on and on about someone just being released from the hospital.

_How ordinary._

The Avengers were murmuring around her. Loki was staring at her. The government was at her back. No one even knew about it. All these people were going about their days as if their world hadn't been visited by imaginary characters bent on destroying her carefully constructed life.

The anchorwoman was still yammering about the poor guy from the hospital. A picture flashed on the screen and Sutton was suddenly alert. Leaping from her cushion, she scrambled for the remote and rewound the segment a few minutes back.

"Shut up, shut up, _shut up_!"

The room instantly quieted at her explosion and she cranked up the volume just to be sure what she was seeing and hearing was right.

"In other news, Stan Lee was just released late this afternoon from the hospital after being admitted earlier this morning..."

"Who is Stan Lee?"

"Shut up!"

"A doctor on the inside speculated that it was merely a case of dehydration, but a few staff and family members seem to have concerns."

The screen flashed to a previously recorded interview. It was some woman, a secretary or something. It didn't matter. All that mattered was what she was saying next.

"He's just been off this week," the woman explained. "He seems a bit distracted, unable to focus, and can't seem to work on anything and make progress. He told me once yesterday that he was just out of ideas! Characters won't cooperate or something weird like that. I don't know. I hope it was just dehydration. He seems to be in slightly better spirits now, and I'm just glad he's ok."

The anchorwoman was back and as professionally concerned as ever.

"Stan Lee is, of course, the man behind most of Marvel's most iconic superheroes and has made several cameos in movie adaptations over the past few years. Most notably, in all the movies leading up to and including last summer's blockbuster hit, The Avengers. The doctor contacted has expressed that Mr. Lee is expected to make a full recovery and be back to work without any concerns. Next, fires in Californ-"

Sutton turned off the TV and sat in silence as her mind buzzed over the information from the news woman. It was just a coincidence. A total coincidence. The man was old! Things happened. Just because it had happened this week, of all weeks, didn't mean a thing.

Sutton rubbed wearily at her face. She could see Steve clenching his jaw and then looking at her through the cracks in her fingers.

"You think this is because we're here," he said.

Sutton sighed, squeezed her temples one more time, and then pulled her head from her hands.

"I'm trying not to," she admitted. "But it seems odd that it just so happened to be this last week. The week when you all show up from nonexistence." She paused a moment as the words sank in. " Maybe not," she corrected. "Maybe he's just getting older. I don't see why he'd have any physical connection to any of this."

Her eyes drifted over the group. They didn't look convinced. Well, at least she wasn't alone in this crazy conspiracy theory. Her lungs froze and then silently heaved at the look Loki was giving this issue. One corner of his lip was twitched up and his eyes, they were too...too relaxed. He was slouched back in the corner chair carelessly like it was his throne, and it made Sutton's nerves spike.

_Was he responsible?_

No, no. He hadn't left the house. Had he? But even if he did. Why go after Stan Lee? It didn't make sense. Sutton shook her head to try to dispel the headache forming. There was too much speculation and not enough facts. It wouldn't do any good to worry herself to death about it. After all, she had her own wellbeing to worry about.

"Still," commented Bruce, "it _is_ strange that he's having a medical issue when we're here. It said he was the... _creator_...of, um, Marvel?"

Sutton nodded.

"Yeah. Most of it, I think. You guys have been around for a while. I'm not sure of the specifics on all of you, but you'd all be kind of considered his brain children. Stan created Iron Man, for example, during the Cold War. Back when everyone was against military and all that? He wanted to challenge himself to create a character that everyone would hate: arrogant, rich, military funded; and then force everyone to like him. It worked."

Tony's lip quirked up slightly.

"Not completely," Steve commented under his breath and Sutton laughed for a moment.

"Good one, Cap," she complimented. "Though I don't think you were the intended audience."

"Well," sighed Tony, "we don't want to give Papa-venger an aneurism or anything. Doctor?"

And he and Bruce lugged their loot back into her kitchen. Sutton guessed it was now considered the lab. It wasn't much of a kitchen without the toaster anyway.

_How was she going to make lazy grilled cheese now?_

Still feeling wobbly from the realization that she just might be enemy number one, Sutton excused herself and locked herself away in her bathroom for some alone time. Someone had taken the mattress out of the tub for a shower, and she shoved it back in before settling on top of it and shutting the shower curtain. There. She was alone. Isolated. She could think without pressure.

Breathe in through her nose, out through her mouth. Everything would be ok.

_Everything was not ok!_

Sutton choked back a sob, wary of the noise she'd alert everyone with. She didn't want this! It had been ok before. It was too much responsibility now. Now her life was at stake too! And Stan Lee? If something happened to him, was it partly her fault? Sutton pulled in a shuddering breath and wiped at her eyes. Her legs were tucked underneath her and she pressed herself in the corner of the tub facing the door. There wasn't any place that was safe now.  
Her fist clutched at her shirt as another thought struck her. What about her mother? Would they use her mother to get to her? If anything happened to her mother, or her mother's husband and her half-brother, she'd never forgive herself. She couldn't even warn them! Every time her heart beat, it felt like a stab in her chest.

Sutton blinked and there was suddenly a lean shadow angled against the sink. She let out a quiet yelp and knocked her head on the tile of the tub. Not even her mass of unruly hair cushioned the blow the tile gave her skull. A low chuckle filtered through the shower curtain.

"So easily startled."

Sutton did not want to pull back the curtain. It was some form of a barrier, however false it was, and it gave her some comfort. But she also didn't like the idea of not being able to see the Mischief Maker's movements. And she didn't want him to think she was some weakling to be taken advantage of. With one steadying breath, she ripped back the curtain and moved to stand up in front of him.

No more being intimidated. No more cowing down.

His gaze drifted lazily to her and ran up and down her body. Sutton kept her distance. The bathroom was much smaller than her room, and that was really saying something. It left her little room to back into, and even less to weasel around him. The only way she was going to be able to leave was if he allowed her to.

"Get out, please," she said as calm as she could. She was very conscious of the fact that her eyes probably were a bit bloodshot.

"I don't believe I will," he said dryly.

True terror shot down her spine and she felt her heart skip two beats.

"Have, have you come to, to-"

"Collect? No." Loki shook his head, but he looked positively giddy. "But it is wonderful to know that you will be so compliant when I do."

A promise. There was too much water above her head now. Loki was like a cement anchor pulling her down when she already couldn't swim.

"I will not," she argued. "You won't win. Not when you're the bad guy."

His head snapped to look at her, and Sutton realized that he looked tired. There was some form of renewed confidence behind his eyes, it seemed like, and it made her nervous. But right beneath that was an exhaustion, and she gripped that knowledge.

His face morphed into a false pout, but man, did that lie look believable.

"Not bad," he insisted. "Misunderstood. Isn't that what you thought? That all I need is love and then all my animosity will be washed away?"

His body turned and it was dwarfing hers. He was in her space on purpose. She had no room to breathe or think.

"Stay back," she commanded. "Why are you here? What do you want now?"

Loki waved his arms out, palms upward, in a welcoming gesture that had Sutton leaning back so he wouldn't accidentally come into contact with her.

"Only to reassure you, I'm sure," he purred.

Sutton highly doubted that was so. She told him as much.

"Forgive me," she said, "if I'm a bit reluctant to believe anything you tell me. And unless you've come to tell me you'll knock it off with the dreams, I don't care to hear any lies at the moment"

He hummed in satisfaction at her mention of the dreams, and Sutton regretted bringing it up.

"Ah, yes. Just a bit of an experiment," he confirmed.

"More like petty payback," Sutton retaliated. "And I'm _still_ not feeling reassured."

Loki cocked his head and looked down his nose at her. As if she didn't already feel small enough. He was so close that she had to crane her head back to look him in the face, and she knew it was another one of his tactics. But, dang it, if it wasn't still working.

"I have come to assure you," he continued undeterred, "that I was not involved in the ailment of your beloved, Stan Lee."

Sutton froze a bit under the weight of the statement.

"I never said you were."

Loki smirked.

"You would do well to learn to control the expression of your emotions. You are quite the, what is the phrase, an open book?"

Sutton's face flashed red. Loki tsked.

"My point proven," he remarked.

"And why am I supposed to believe you," Sutton questioned aggressively. "Why even care if I think you're up to something?"

"I am telling you the truth now so that you will believe me when I promise you _this_. If you attempt to warn any of the others about your fate, then I will personally see to the destruction of everyone you hold most dear. I will make you watch as the life slowly drains from their eyes, as they plead for mercy, pitifully call your name to help them. And then, then I will force you to face your fate as intended in the first place. Am I clear?"

Sutton felt her throat seize up even as she swallowed thickly; her eyes darted from Loki to the bathroom door.

"You don't know who or where they are," she tried.

Loki's sharp gaze spoke that he wouldn't tolerate her rebellion.

"Shall I start with Victoria Sung first then? Perhaps work my way up to your co-worker, Jennifer Oswald, and move on to your family. Harold Stringer, his son, Tyrese? Your mother."

Her hands instantly turned to fists and she took a bold half of a step forward.

"How-how do you know about them? I have never spoken about them to any of you!"

Loki's smile was victorious and particularly vicious as he clasped his hands behind his back.

"It is not important," he said. "But I suggest that you behave, and do as I command."

Sutton wanted to argue. The word ' _command'_ irked her more than anything else. She was no one's puppet! But she fought it down for the sake of her family.

"Why now," she asked instead. And it stung her to ask it, because it was her relenting to him. It was obedience without the 'yes, sir'. "Why wait till now to threaten me into silence?"

For a moment, she was sure that he wasn't going to answer her. But then he tilted his head back, his eyes sparkling, and he did.

"I did not want the news you received from that prattling box to give you any false hope of rescue."

"With Stan," she asked incredulously. "What does Stan Lee have to do with what you want me for?"

Loki just grinned and began to fade.

"Remember my promise," was all he said. And then he was gone.

The bathroom was again cold and empty. Sutton looked down and realized that she was shaking. Her hands vibrated like an addict going through withdrawals and the tips of her fingers were enflamed in icy tingles. Slowly, she sank down on the bathroom floor and dropped her head in between her knees. And then, she let herself cry.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things go 'boom' just like Sutton's brain is about to.

There was a throbbing ringing. It was loud. Sutton blinked, but the world was orbiting too quickly around her. The darkness was finally receding from her vision, but shapes were still blurry. She tried to take in more air. One breath, two. She could feel something solid. The wall?

Shaking her head, she tried to clear the confusion. Other fuzzy shapes were moving around the room.

"Is everyone okay?"

There was a voice coming from what seemed like several layers of atmosphere away and Sutton strove to reach it. A shock of blond hair became visible, and then a blue t-shirt. Sutton focused on him.

"Not at all like your dad, are you," Steve quipped. She could make him out fully now. "Couldn't help but touch those wires together."

Sutton found that she was up against the far wall of her living room. Or, rather, what used to be her living room. She sucked in air as she was finally able to notice the destruction. Her furniture had been violently strewn about, and she had actually just missed being squished by her couch. Everyone else seemed to be alright as well, now that she could actually see. It was no surprise that the ground zero of the explosion looked to be the kitchen. Both Tony and Bruce's faces were a bit blackened with whatever had been produced by the explosion.

_Gosh darn it. It had only been a week,_ _one week_ ,  _since her melt down and now they were prompting another._

Pushing herself up onto her feet, Sutton made her way over to the people gathering in her once adequate kitchen.

"You okay?"

Sutton looked up to Natasha and nodded.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm good. What happened?"

"How many fingers am I holding up," the spy asked instead. Sutton was going to answer 'seven' before she remembered that that wasn't the normal amount of fingers on one hand.

"Five."  
"Did you have to count?"

"I'm  _fine,"_  Sutton insisted. "But my house isn't."

She turned her attention to the guilty parties and threw her hands up in exasperation.

"What did you science nerds do to my house? It is a rental! They are  _so_  going to keep the security deposit now!"

Tony was sputtering a bit, raking his tongue along the outside of his teeth and muttering something about tasting fruit punch; Bruce was blinking at the destruction as if it had seeped up from the kitchen surfaces it coated and greeted him.

"Idiots," Loki muttered from somewhere behind her. Sutton actually agreed for once, but wasn't about to voice that aloud. Vicki was going to murder her.

"Just a small mechanical error," Tony explained. "It's good to work the bugs out early on."

The wall separating the kitchen from the living room was partly crumbled and blackened; Sutton ran a hand along it morosely. With a sigh, she turned back to the group and told herself to keep calm. Channel her inner Bruce, as it were. The nice Bruce side.

"Yeah, well when I let you-Ahh!"

Her attention was suddenly stolen by the ragged hole leading to her back yard. Glass littered the floor and the cheap blinds that their landlord would never replace where scattered about outside.

"You broke my sliding glass door! There is a hole in my house!"

"On the up side, no one was seriously hurt."

Her fiery gaze turned back to Tony.

"Not yet," she seethed. "Do you know how much those cost? Tony Stark, you  _better_  hope that there  _is_  such thing as inter-dimensional wire transfers, because you  _owe_  me."

Thor stepped up to join the group looking the most undisturbed out of the bunch. The explosion was probably the equivalent of a chest bump for the Asgardians.

"What about the device," he questioned. "Was it destroyed in the blast?"

Bruce held up a piece of  _something_. The group winced and Clint ran a hand over his face as he passed by the group.

"Well, not like it can get much worse."

Sutton made sputtering noises and mimed choking motions with her hands in his direction.

"NEVER SAY THAT. What is wrong with you?"

"Chill out," Tony admonished. It did nothing to quell Sutton's rising anxiety. "We'll fix everything. You should be more worried about the fact that now we're out of supplies and still stuck here."

Bruce sighed and scratched at his head while thinking.

"We need," he paused and glanced at Sutton as if he were about to be offensive. "We need better tech."

"Agreed."

Sutton calmed down through sheer force of will, determined to not be the childish one in the bunch again. It was possible for her to handle disaster with a calm and reasonable attitude. Accidents happened, right? She breathed in and out again, and pulled her hand away from the charred wall. This was about the Avengers, and Loki. They wanted to go home. They had people that were probably worrying out of their minds about them.

"Ok," she finally said. "But I can't really help you there. It's not like we can just pull up to NASA and ask to borrow some equipment."

"Which is why we wouldn't ask permission."

Natasha stood with legs shoulder width apart and arms crossed over her chest.

_How did her hair still look so nice?_

Tony grinned widely and threw his fist up quickly in excitement.

"Sounds like a road trip, ladies."

"Are we all not going on the journey to the NASA?"

Steve held up a hand for them to slow down.

"Wait, wait, wait. The people who sent us to the moon? We're going to need an actual plan of attack for this. A couple of lab coats and fake badges just aren't going to cut it."

"Neither will the Iron Man suit," contributed Sutton. "You step in there in that and you'll be covered in techies trying to disassemble it to find out how it works."

"Whatever plan we go with," Clint spoke up, "we better enact it soon." Sutton looked up to find him lounging on top one of her couches, his back against the wall. He was twiddling with his arrows, she assumed to make sure the little babies weren't harmed.

"You just caused a decent sized explosion in a house being monitored for signs of terrorism. I can't imagine it'll take them long to get here."

Sutton's eyes flared widely before she hastily plastered on a strained grin.

"Ok, either face prison time or break into NASA. What are we waiting for? Go pack, oh wait, you don't  _have_ anything to bring. Perfect, let's be off!"

Already breathless, Sutton scurried down her hall in order to throw some clothes in a duffel bag. She was  _not_ going to prison! She would never survive! There really  _hadn't_ even been so much as a parking ticket on her record before now. It just wasn't fair!

Sutton felt as if someone had just given her three shots of espresso straight to her bloodstream as she shakily groped for her clothes. All she could see were jail cells and dark rooms, and a few faceless men in sharp suits. She was not a main character, she did not have any remarkable qualities. She was expendable, and this was real life. Acknowledging that made her shiver. She hadn't ever felt this vulnerable in her life. Well, actually, that wasn't quite true. When she had discovered the horrid truth her mom had hidden about Sutton's birth father...

_But now wasn't the time for that._

After snatching up a few more necessities, Sutton bolted back out of her room and into the fray. Everyone was moving, Sutton hadn't seen such purpose and deliberate movement from all of them at once since they'd gotten to her world. She felt her stomach drop and then rise back up. Standing quietly at the end of the end of the hallway, Sutton watched them in their choreographed hustling.

"You okay?" Bruce had shuffled up and paused next to her, peering at her over his glasses.

_No, not at all. Not for awhile._

"I'm coming too, right," she asked instead. "You guys aren't going to leave me behind to-to..."

"To be arrested by the Secret Service?"

Sutton swallowed and flushed.

"Yeah, that."

"What kind of... _super_  heroes would we be if we did that?"

Sutton just shrugged lamely and scratched at her elbow.

"Kid!"

That caused her to shoot a glare at the offender.

"Bird Man," she shot back. Clint's lips tugged upwards marginally.

"You ready to fly?"

That earned him an eye roll, and she ran a hand through her hair to soothe herself.

"Yeah," she sighed. "But they aren't. How far do you think we'll get while they're wearing leather armer and capes?"

Natasha leaned back on her right foot and gave both the aliens a once over.

"She's right. They draw enough attention to themselves as it is."

It didn't take long for them to get Thor and Loki changed to "blend in". If you could call Loki in black slacks and a dark emerald button down  _blending in_. It was honestly distracting before she remembered that the guy was literally promising to enslave her for his own evil purposes. And as if being stuck in a car with all of them, out for a road trip to break into some NASA facility, wasn't bad enough, they went as far as to take her keys. Because Clint apparently was the driver for any plane, boat, or golf cart, which made Natasha navigator. Sutton found herself in the third row seat squished next to Thor who was the only barrier between her and Loki.

It was going to be a marvelous trip. She could just feel it.

To top it off, they weren't actually going to a NASA facility. Not that Sutton was especially keen on breaking in to any laboratory, but, come on! NASA! That would have been so cool. Tony explained that they were heading towards a closer, completely adequate, lab in Berkeley, California. It might not have been as far as the station in Ohio, but they'd still be in very tight quarters for at least eleven hours. Sutton's leg was pretty well pressed up against Thor's. Then again...

There was no doubt that this trumped Sutton's list of 'Top Ten Most Awkward Road-trips'. And they weren't even a half an hour into it yet. And she thought that the summer trip to Florida her freshman year had been bad. In the stress and chaos of packing, she'd totally neglected some essentials. Like a coloring book or crossword puzzle. Sutton suddenly let out a horrified gasp.

"Oh no!"  
Thor's head snapped in her direction as he scanned the small space between them.

"What is it, Lady Sutton?"

"My books. I left my books! All of them. What if I can never go home? And crap, my job!"

Sutton could hear Tony let out a garbled groan from the row in front of her. Steve shot back a look that she couldn't distinguish between slight sympathy or agitation. Thor did not look like he knew how to respond to her distress. He opened his mouth and then closed it before patting her awkwardly on the shoulder.

"I am sure all will be well," he said. "Did you know that my brother also greatly enjoys reading? He has a vast collection back on Asgard."

"Yeah, I know," Sutton responded absently. Giving a start, she turned back to Thor and tried to retract. "I mean, I didn't  _know_. It, it's more like a commonly held belief."

The car quieted again and Sutton squirmed in the stillness. Gosh, this was terrible. She always killed a conversation. Was it her turn to start one now? The only noise was the quiet murmurs from some top forty station playing. She had to say _something_. People were waiting for it, she knew it. She was so rude.

"You know what I don't know," she spat out before she could think. She craned herself slightly to peer around Thor at his brooding sibling. "Are your magic duplicates tangible, or not? Because it looked like one knocked over some rocks on Jotunheim, but that could have been an illusion too. And it never really pushed the button on the Helicarrier."

Loki lazily brought his gaze from out the window to face her. He was piercing her with that judgmental look again before he gave her an easy grin.

"What do you  _believe?_ "

Sutton frowned, her brows meeting and lips pulling up to one side.

"I don't know," she said. "A lot of people think that they can be solid, if you want them to be."

It seemed as if Loki's attention suddenly sharpened and focused on her. Sutton shifted in her seat and tried not to worry about how her leg rubbed up against her neighbor's.

"But what do  _you_ believe,  _Sutton_?"

" _I_  believe that I wish we had that muzzle," Steve muttered.

Sutton rolled her eyes, but gave the question some thought. Loki was a gifted magician; it wouldn't be too difficult to imagine him able to make copies of himself. And even though the film had never shown a duplicate really interacting with any objects, that didn't mean they couldn't. Those rocks had fallen over the cliff, and there hadn't been anything to hint at it being part of the illusion. She carefully worded her answer in her head before spilling it.

"I think that they can be."

She would pay him no other compliment. This whole conversation was a mistake in the first place. Loki's gaze was on her a bit longer before he broke out into a grin.

"You would be correct."

That drew in everyone's curiosity a bit. Even Thor gave his brother a glance that spoke he might have not been privy to that information either. The answer made her uncomfortable and she looked back out the window. Okay, no more starting conversations for her.

Sutton resolved herself to watching the white line that sped next to her car's wheels for the rest of the trip. Eleven hours. Not long, right? She wondered how irritating would they find it if she asked them when the next rest stop was?


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sutton sets out on a road trip with the Avengers. (And Loki.)

It only took a couple dozen signs proclaiming the obvious for Sutton to realize that they were, in fact, heading north. The last time she'd checked, north wasn't where they kept California. She sat up straighter in her seat and twisted to see out all the windows. Her first instinct was to ask where they were going, or if maybe Clint was lost, but she didn't want to ask a dumb question and look any more stupid than she already had.

_Ok_ , she thought to herself,  _deduction time._

Mentally cracking her knuckles, she put on her imaginary Sherlock Holmes hat.

Clint was a trained assassin employed by S.H.I.E.L.D.; he obviously wasn't lost. That meant he was heading north with a purpose. So, what was of interest north when they'd all agreed the lab was their end game. Canada was north. Were they going to drive up and drop her off?

But Bruce had said they wouldn't leave her!

Her face felt cool all of a sudden. He'd said they wouldn't leave her for the feds to find. Did they think she'd be safe on foreign soil? Didn't they know Canada pretty much didn't even count as "out of country"? A tingle had erupted in her stomach as she berated herself and tried to calm down. What had assumptions ever done for her before? Instead, she calmly peered out the window and said calmly,

"so, can I correctly guess we're making our way to Canada?"

"To the border, yes," confirmed Natasha.

Sutton nodded to herself.

" _For,"_ she prodded further.

"The bank."

Seeing as how the answers where getting shorter and more terse Sutton was loathe to ask another one, so she didn't. Her Sherlock hat went back on and she tried to recall every spy and action movie she'd ever seen for clues. A few seconds later and she groaned in dawning realization.

"It'll cost more in gas than I actually have in my account," she complained. "If you wanted my life savings, you should have just let me pull it out in town. Andrea knows me there. She would have believed whatever excuse I gave her."

"This way," Natasha explained very slowly, "they might assume you've tried to run out of county."

Sutton let out a huff of annoyance, but sat back in her seat. Scratch the hopeful thinking that this road trip would only last a long day.

_Oh no. They were going to get nice and cozy._

"If they bothered to take one glance at my browser history, I think it'd be pretty obvious how non-terrorist I am," she complained.

"Oh,  _we know_ ," Tony scoffed. "Trust me."

Sutton's sudden glare snapped to the back of his head.

"Hey! I deleted all that the day after you guys got here!"

She had, hadn't she? Yes, she knew she had. It'd been in the short amount of time they'd let her have custody of her own laptop back. Tony pointed to the top of his head over the seat without turning around to face her.

" _Genius._ And, as if that wasn't enough," he then pointed two fingers at the front row couple, "espionage twins. Nothing on a computer is secret for you."

She really had no response to that except to whine about unfairness and privacy acts, so she huffed indignantly instead and sat back in her seat.

Despite the fact that Sutton found herself, quite literally, on a road trip with the Avengers that didn't negate the fact that after forty-five minutes of driving, you were done. Sutton really wished she'd thought to bring a book.

The road had segments of lovely views divided by gray highway driving and she let her mind wander as well as she could. She succeeded for awhile, she really did. But after an hour of nothing other than classical orchestra playing, because _if I hear one more Katy Perry song I will destroy your stereo,_ and,  _is that what this generation calls music,_  or,  _is that screeching truly considered Midgard's finest entertainment,_  Sutton was feeling a little stir crazy. Fidgeting was even out of the question because one move would have her rubbing against Thor's thigh and she really didn't want to give him the wrong idea. Not that he wasn't a beautiful golden-ray of sunshine of the male specimen, but she wasn't a home-wrecker. It was as she attempted to count the bolts in the passing guard rails that she remembered she might have something worthwhile in her purse. She pulled it out from where it was wedged under her seat and rifled through it. Frowning at the lack of any novel, she remembered she'd taken out the previous book she had finished but never replaced it. But, and her face lit up marginally, she had a small notecard sized notebook and a pen. Compared to the flat scenery and the dozing silence it was golden. To be fair, though, it wasn't  _totally_  silent. Tony and Bruce were murmuring back and forth and she was pretty sure from the giggles and glimpses of paper she'd gotten that they'd told each other jokes using nothing but mathematical equations.

_Nerds._

And further, she supposed, quiet was better than bickering. Still, she opened the small notebook with relish and dropped the point of the pen onto a clean page.

_What to do, what to do?_

Inspiration did not strike her and words did not suddenly tumble onto the page, but in her boredom Sutton began writing a block of uncreative fiction. It was cliché at best but she never meant it to live outside the car ride anyway. Sutton entertained herself in that way for awhile and she filled up seven of the pages front and back. One particularly cheesy line found its way onto the paper and Sutton snickered to herself before letting out an unexpected shriek. Her notebook was on fire! A bright, hot, flame shot up from the page and rose almost to the car's ceiling. She threw the notebook onto the ground out of instinct and watched, flabbergasted, as it spiked once more in heat and then flashed bright and ended up being nothing but ash. It didn't take very much mental strain to conclude who the guilty party was. Loki's eyes were bright, but his face was hard; his lips pulled down on the corners. Sutton swallowed.

"What was that about," she snapped. "You almost burnt my fingers off!"

Loki merely tilted his head back in his typical haughty manner.

"Just a bit of mischief."

But it wasn't. Sutton could feel it. He grinned as the team reprimanded him, which was about as much a waste of breath as Sutton asking for her computer back, but his eyes were angry. She couldn't quite explain it. Everyone always made it seem like the eyes alone were giant billboards for emotions and Sutton had never understood it. You couldn't always tell how a person felt just because their eyes did something weird like change color or glint in the light. But one look at Loki and she suddenly understood how you might get clues. He was definitely not happy with her and she wasn't sure why.

Once again she pressed herself against the seat, pulling her legs up with her, and tried to think. Ignoring this Loki problem was not helping her situation at all. Obviously she'd have to divert from her usual conflict resolution tactics.

He wanted her for something, that was more than clear. But the 'why' was a different story all together.

_Sherlock hat._

What where her clues? Some kind of convoluted idea of potential, Stan Lee, and now he burned her notebook. Sutton let out a long, low breath. Now all she needed was her Thinking Chair.

But it would have to wait, because Clint was turning off on the exit into a small town right before the Canadian border. After the long car ride it was ridiculously wonderful to step out and onto the pavement. Everyone tumbled out of the car and Sutton didn't have it in her to scold them for being less than discrete. For right now, she mentally appointed Clint and Natasha as responsible for their personal safety.

Stretching was good. Heavenly. And she allowed herself a good long reach for the sky once she'd distanced herself appropriately from the green clad villain. But after a quick rest stop, it was all business. Clint took her aside and started to very solemnly instruct her on how to go about getting all her money out.

"Can't I just, you know, ask for it? I mean, it is my money and  _my_ business."

Clint's hand was still loosely holding her elbow as if he had to physically restrain her or she'd go wandering after butterflies.

"No," he said flatly. "You're pulling  _all_  of your money from that bank. They are going to ask questions. They are going to try and convince you not to. We're already in hot water and we need to be a good distance down the road by the time your government gets up here. Now listen."

And he went through his plan slowly, in small words she could understand it. Just about the time Sutton was going to whack him across the back of the head for treating her like a kindergardener, he was finished.

"Well, got it, kid?"

"Hm, not quite," she said pointedly. "Maybe you could draw some pictures for me. That might help."

Clint just leveled her with a look and then surprised her by smirking and mussing up her hair. Sutton sputtered and jerked back, hands flying up to protect her curls.

"Hey! Robin Hood, my hair is enough of a bird's nest as it is!"

"I just thought that if you were going to act like a kid, might as well look more like one."

He began to strut away and Sutton had to have the last word.

"Maybe I would if you stopped calling me one!"

" _Caw, caw, Moth-_ "

"LANGUAGE!"

It was more nerve wracking than she thought that it would be. Finding herself standing in front of the teller, Sutton felt an overwhelming sense foreboding wash over her. This would be like the federal agents interrogation all over again. They'd be able to read her like a book. They would think she wasn't really Sutton Regan and that she was stealing someone else's identity! Clint's words came floating back to her and she took a moment to remember them.

_"Breath. Don't seize up. You aren't doing anything wrong. Just be calm about it; get in and get out. You can do this."_

It was her turn next. The woman behind the counter looked up at her expectantly and Sutton took those five steps forward deliberately. She put on her friendliest, most innocent looking smile.

"Hello, how can I help you?"

"Yes, I'm moving and I'm going to have to cancel my account. I'd like to withdraw all my savings. Large bills are fine."

Her fingers trembled as she pushed over her ID and debit card to the teller. The woman shot her a look and then frowned professionally.

"That's too bad. But our banks are nation-wide. Are you sure there's not one in the area you're moving to? We would love to keep you with us."  
She'd responded just as Clint had said she would and Sutton stuck to the script.

"I'm moving out of country, actually. And I checked."

"Oh," the woman cooed. "Well, we'll be very disappointed to lose you. Let me just pull up your account."

Sutton could start to feel the back of her neck grow hot. This was the risky part, Clint had said, because they hadn't been able to check if they'd frozen her accounts yet. The muscles in her calves twitched and she eyed the door fleetingly. But then she remembered her mother's own bravery and settled.

_"You don't always feel brave,"_  she'd said.  _"But you don't have to. If you do what needs to be done, then you've succeeded."_

Sutton didn't think that she'd ever  _felt_  especially brave, but people were counting on her now. She squared her shoulders. Also, if she tried to run out now the teller would probably start to suspect something strange was going on with her. No need for any more of that then there already was. But as she stood attempting to calm herself she couldn't help but think it was taking a bit longer than necessary. The teller clicked her mouse several times and frowned at her monitor.

"Hold on," she said. "Let me try it this way."

Sutton's body immediately heated. She tried to lean casually against the counter and cover her hot face with her hand.

"My computer seems to be acting up a bit, I apologize," the teller said.

Sutton tried to wave her hand in a dismissal that didn't seem like her whole life depended on this being done quickly.

"Oh no; it's ok. You're good. That's fine."

The wait lasted a few minutes longer. Sutton felt every tremble of the second hand as it seemed to race by in slow motion inching closer to her capture. The teller suddenly grinned and quickly typed in a few keys.

"There we go! Just had to get a bit creative."

The money started sputtering out of a machine next to Sutton and she watched in trepidation for it all to arrive.

"Now I'll just close your account and- Oh!"

Snapping her head forward, Sutton paled slightly at the woman's face.

"What?"  
"I must have- your account just froze." The woman shook her head. "I must have hit something. At least we got you your money first!"

Sutton felt her heart palpitate behind her ribs as she nodded mutely. Just in time? What were the odds? Either the dream team was playing some serious defense, or something was up. As soon as the money stopped coming, Sutton snatched up an envelope and stuffed it inside before dashing for the door. The cold air nipped at her and tossed her hair a bit as her cheeks flushed. She let out a lungful of air and grinned.  _Just in time._  Now they could skedaddle down to a warmer California and get these guys home! Her grin flickered a little as she considered the idea of them leaving her behind, despite the fact that she knew it must happen. She knew she complained and overreacted, but really this was the most exciting thing to ever happen to her. They were  _superheroes._ She'd been dreaming of superheroes her whole life. None had arrived quite when she thought she had needed one, but she had them now. And now she was hesitant to give them up. Well, besides Loki. He could go home. That was something she never imagined herself saying, but he was creeping her out.

As she scanned the parking lot for her car, she felt her grin drop completely. It was then that she came to a horrific discovery.

Her car was gone.

Eyes hot and throat prickling, she tried not to jump to any conclusions. But the parking lot was sparse of traffic and she couldn't see her hero packed SUV anywhere. Her throat closed a bit more as she clutched her envelope of cash and took a few steps out into the lot. Just in case. But she still didn't see it or anyone else.

_They didn't leave you,_ she told herself.  _They promised that they wouldn't. They wouldn't lie. Besides, they need the money._

A few more minutes passed and there was no sign of anyone. It was just Sutton and the wind and a couple curious glances thrown her way. She felt something inside her that had been built up break. The next moment she scowled out at the parking lot and straightened her spine. If they'd left her for herself, she wasn't going to just sit and cry about it. That would get her arrested and in a cell block faster than she could blink. She pushed her shoulders back, chin high, and marched passed the bank towards the street. Her passport was in her bag which was in her car.  _Her stolen car._ If she wanted to get into Canada at all now, she'd have to sneak through the woods. Probably, she'd have to stay in the woods. Maybe she could find an abandoned cabin and live off the land. The Canadian government was pretty cooperative and would most likely ship her back at the first request. She hoped that they didn't have much border patrol.

The town was on the smaller side. It was only busy at all from the border crossing traffic. It was one of those towns that seems like it's made up solely of restaurants and hotels, with one mall planted in the middle of it all. Sutton followed the sidewalk, shoving her money and her hands deep into her jacket pockets. She stayed on the outskirts of the town and avoided making eye contact with anyone. Not that it was especially difficult to. Her expression was colder than the wind currently blowing and her hunched shoulders weren't exactly welcoming.

She was heading sort of east, that much she knew, and only vaguely because the border crossing was to her left. What if there was a fence across the entire country? No, that'd be way too costly, right? A dampness gathered around her eyelids and something hot bubbled in her stomach. She remembered Bruce's open face and kind voice. Was he so skilled a liar? Maybe he'd been mutinied. And Tony and  _'heart-of-gold'_  Capt.? Maybe she wasn't exactly friends with them, but she'd thought she'd gotten along with Tony well enough. Really, she guessed, she didn't know a thing about them. All her knowledge had been based on her world's take on their character, and obviously they were off.

The sidewalk was mostly empty besides herself so Sutton let herself grit her teeth and blink back tears while clenching her fists in her pockets.  _She should have known._  She had let herself open up because they were  _superheroes_  and  _good guys_ and now look at her! Now she was alone and waiting to be arrested. She let out a harsh laugh that was unlike her as she considered the irony of her situation. The powers at be were sure to arrest her when she was innocent, and the one person connected to her family who deserved to be locked away still roamed free.

_Figures._

She huffed to herself and pulled a hand out to wipe roughly at her eyes and then shook her head. No. Nope. No crying. She could still make it through this. She just needed to eat something. She tended to get overly emotional when hungry.

At first she considered stopping at one of the local places that she kept passing, but disregarded it in favor for a fast food place. They were less likely to remember her face there. And so, Sutton ambled up to the next Burger King and welcomed the warm air and smell of grease.

Forget the Avengers. Forget Loki and his stupid schemes. Forget the feds. Right now she was going to get a Whopper meal and a coke and she was going to enjoy it. And then, after, maybe she'd try to formulate a plan.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sutton's road trip takes a detour.

The dirty motel phone seemed to glow in comparison to every thing else as Sutton stared longingly at it. It was dark outside, finally, and late. This place was the only one she could find in this town that would take cash and not ask many questions. And it showed. For that reason, she was sitting stiffly in the corner chair, the other was propped under the door handle, and was trying no to sneer at the gunk on the walls. Calling her mom would be a poor decision and she shouldn't do it. Even if it had been awhile since she'd last talked to her. Even if it was only to tell her not to worry. She should definitely not pick up that phone, she should not dial the number, and hearing her mother's soothing voice was out of the question.

Her right hand trembled as she reached for the receiver. Maybe if she just kept the conversation short. Under a minute. That's how long it took to trace a call, right?

Sutton did what she should not do and dialed her mother's home number. She breathed and blinked quickly as the phone rang. It rang three times before Sutton heard a click and a deep, masculine voice answered.

"Howard, hi. It's Sutton. I really need to talk to my mom."

He passed off the phone after giving her a more familiar greeting and murmuring something to her mother in the background. As much as Sutton appreciated the man, she really wanted to just hurry up and hear her mother's voice.

"Hello? Sutton?" Her mother's voice was already hinting at worry. Howard must have told her that she was being short on the phone. She usually was more pleasant to her mother's husband, she really was. Sutton felt her throat start to close up again and forced her self to swallow.

"Mom! Hey, I can't talk very long, I just want to say hi really fast."

She knew that she wasn't doing a very good job of reassuring anyone, her tone was a bit frantic, but she really couldn't help it. Her mother would be able to sense it anyway and time was not on her side.

"Sutton, honey, are you ok? You sound...scared. What's going on?"

What was going on was Sutton wanted a hug, but that wasn't exactly feasible at the moment.

"I'm fine mom," she said instead. "Really. I just needed to call you and let you know I love you and that I'm ok. You know, just check in."

"What's going on? Do you need me to come over? Did something happen?"

Sutton's mother did not need to be anywhere near that wreck of a house. It was now probably a crime scene and if her mother were to go roaming about she'd be picked up and questioned and who knows what else just like that!

"No! No. I'm fine, perfectly ok. I'm actually, uh, going to be away for awhile. It's a, uh, work trip. I just wanted you to know that if you don't hear from me for a bit, I'm ok and safe."

Her mother's rasping breath was coming through the end of the phone and Sutton felt her heart crumbling. She didn't keep secrets like this from her mom. She needed to hang up soon.

"Did _something happen,_ Sutton," she asked. "What aren't you telling me? I am your mother!"

Sutton closed her eyes as she felt them flare in heat and dampen.

_She shouldn't have called,_ but it felt wrong to _not._

"Nothing, mom. Nothing. I just, I-" Her voice was thickening and her vocal cords felt strained. "I just missed you, I guess. I didn't want you to worry about me because I'm flakey and forget to call people. I love you."

It was quiet on both ends of the phone and Sutton knew that the silence meant she hadn't convinced her mother of anything. She'd probably just made it worse. This woman, of all people, didn't deserve this. She was a horrible daughter.

"Sutton-"

"I have to go, mom. I- it's late. I love you."

"Sutton!"

"I love you!"

And she slammed the phone into its base before she could change her mind.

The yellowed phone now sat lifeless and dull while Sutton stared absently at it. She rubbed the fabric on her shoulder across her ear to try and clean it off. The temptation to call her mother back and apologize for everything sizzled through her, but she knew with absolute certainty that she could not.

Not again.

She tried not to let the tears spill out because if they did, they wouldn't stop. There was no time for crying or self pity right now. It was only getting later and Sutton suddenly wasn't in the mood for scheming. Taking her jacket, she gingerly laid it across the bedspread and tried to curl up on it without her limbs spilling over the edges.

 

The alarm set on the clock near the bed went off at a time that felt much too early. Sutton slapped at it wearily while rolling off the bed, momentarily forgetting that she was loathe to touch any part of it. Letting out a sound of surprised disgust in the back of her throat, she tried to shake it off and stretch out all the cricks that had developed during the night. She swore she hadn't moved from her curled up position on her side all night and she was feeling it. Despite the early hour and her desire to just shut out the world for _a few more minutes_ , she forced herself into the decaying shower and turned on the nozzle using only her fingernails. At least the water was clear. Sutton ignored the fact that the shampoo bottle looked half empty already, but couldn't manage to find it in her to use the bar of soap. There were some lines she just wouldn't cross.

She'd had to pay in full the night before, before even getting to her room, but she checked out any way to make sure they knew she was gone. And with that, Sutton began her first day on the run all alone.

After a cheap and unsatisfying breakfast, she had managed to half convince herself that her situation wasn't so bad. No one had found her so far and all she had to do was use only cash and never touch an electronic device ever again. Probably she should stay away from cameras too. She tried to additionally convince herself that she could survive off the wilderness if it came down to it, but that was a stretch even for her. Her feet carried her on and on through the small town and she attempted to maintain going in one steady direction. All her determination to formulate a long term survival plan slid away the longer she thought and failed to come up with something. As her mind drifted, she found herself analyzing her _Loki_ problem once again. What use could she possibly be?

Despite her constant attitude and flippancy, Sutton did not consider herself to be a _stupid_ person. Perhaps a bit unobservant, yes, but she didn't get good grades in school from cheating. If she put her mind to it she _would_ figure it out. She _had_ to. After all, her time was ticking down and her limited martial arts knowledge would be useless against an Asgardian. (That is, if he actually ever showed up again.)

Half her mind was kept on the road as she approached the highway and with her remaining focus she forced herself to actually think. Her mind swirled with the things that had happened before she had been abandoned and left as a good as dead.

_Potential._

_Stan Lee._

_Her notebook._

Why was Loki so upset about her writing in her notebook? Did he think she was writing a plea for help to pass on?

_No._

Sutton shook her head and edged closer to the guardrail on her right. He knew she couldn't lie, and if she had been attempting something so sneaky she'd have appeared much more jittery. So he just didn't like her writing at all then.

_That was dumb._

And this somehow connected back to Stan Lee. Stan Lee and something that could supposedly bring her hope of rescue or salvation from Loki.

The only thing she could draw together was the fact that Stan Lee also wrote. But that was different. He wrote with actual mindful creativity and for an audience. He had people who actually supported and believed in his work.

_Believe._

Why did that strike her as familiar somehow?

A car horn suddenly blared from the busy lane next to her and Sutton jumped out of her skin. She glared out at the passing cars and huffed. Then she froze. Something didn't feel right. Her eyes darted back over the traffic and she felt her lungs seize. There were two black sedans going along with the flow of traffic. And they were gaining on her. They had no front plates and the windows were tinted. Normally, she would have called herself paranoid and moved on, but something about the vehicles made her skin crawl and her blood freeze on its way to her toes.

She took off in a run. With nothing to carry save for the clothes on her back and the money in her pocket, Sutton's feet flew over the pavement. The sedans pressed forward and changed lanes so they were positioned right behind her. Sutton's heart was plummeting to her stomach only to rise up to behind her tongue and start its drop again. There was no way she could outrun a car! Especially not since her muscles were already complaining due to her mostly sedentary lifestyle and poor nights sleep.

She should have ridden the stationary bike more often!

Without much thought, Sutton gripped the cold metal of the guardrail and used it to push herself over and onto the dirt on the other side. She dove into the cover of the trees.

It was slower going on the uneven terrain in the trees and Sutton was forced to slow her pace to avoid injury. Still, she stayed just within the tree-line in order to keep following the road. Her breathing was beginning to become erratic and Sutton clenched her fists as she continued to run. Through the tree limbs she could still see the black sedans keeping pace, one pulling slightly ahead.

She couldn't keep this up! They were going to catch her. Her life was over!

Sutton stumbled slightly on a tree root that had her skittering back over towards the road.

_If only, if only she had a car! Or, who knows, maybe a_ team _to help her!_

But she couldn't give up! There had to be something she could do. Her legs continued pumping as she tried to come up with something in the moment. Maybe hiding wasn't going to help? What if other cars saw her running from a couple of shady vehicles? Would anyone try and help? Sutton grit her teeth; it was worth a shot.

Sinking down on her right foot, she used her momentum to push off and shoot back out onto the main road. With a yelp, she realized just how close the sedans were and stayed on the opposite side of the guard rail. They were slowing down traffic and ticking numerous people off just to keep pace with her. If nothing else was proof enough that it was the feds, that alone was.

Her eyes darted out over the traffic looking for any sign that there would be help coming. Most of the vehicles had started switching over to the middle and left hand lane and were whipping by. One van in the distance had cut somebody off in its attempt to change lanes, but other than that it was a steady flow of unbreakable traffic.

Sutton tried to wave out at the road, knowing it'd be less than useful to yell, and tried to attract _other people's_ attention to herself.

If these agents still thought she was a terrorist when she could obviously not even successfully hitchhike, they were dumber than she was! Really! What kind of super secret amazing terrorist even got caught in their own house and then couldn't successfully leave the country?

Obviously they thought her.

There was the sudden screeching of tires, a horn blaring, and a rush of wind at her back, but Sutton didn't dare look. They would stop their cars any minute now and catch her on foot. She had to keep going. But the ground underneath her was beginning to slope downwards and crumble away, the road continued on an overpass, and she had no choice but to leap back over the guardrail so she could keep on running.

It would probably be over soon now.

Sutton took three more steps and then felt a pressure around her waist that literally swept her off her feet. The ground was suddenly going by much faster beneath her and she let out a sizable shriek. She couldn't even kick or flail because she really didn't feel like being dropped at this sort of speed. And then, just as suddenly, she was pulled inside the vehicle and watched as the door shut before her.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things keep happening to Sutton. She doesn't appreciate it.

She couldn't see. Something had been shoved over her head and was starting to smother her. Instinctively she lashed out, kicking her legs and arching her back. Her mind was buzzing without her really understanding full thoughts.

"Let me go! Let me _go!_ "

But they didn't. Her arms were yanked behind her back and bound with cold metal bracelets. Sutton seized and then kicked out again, making contact with something that felt like a shin, but she was already being forced into a seat and belted in.

"Miss Regan, I must insist that you calm down."

She hadn't heard that voice before and the panic only swelled.

"I didn't do anything! Let me go!"

" _Miss Regan,_ if you don't calm down I will have to sedate you. Is that what you want?"  
"No! Please, I swear I didn't do anything. Just let me-"

She continued to attempt to pull herself away from the hand that was gripping her upper arm. There was a grunt, and a clicking as if something were being opened. And then something bit at her neck and Sutton felt herself slip away.

It seemed like she'd just drifted off when she was suddenly alert once again. She didn't feel exactly real, like maybe she was just a floating _feeling_ , but when she looked down she could see herself. She waved her arms around, smacked her thighs. _Solid and tangible_. It was dark all around her though, and Sutton took a few hesitant steps into the void.

" _Hello?_ "

Despite the lack of _anything_ , her voice didn't echo around her like she thought it might. It just shot out into the distance and left her alone too. A slithering voice answered her back instead.

_"You stupid creature."_

Sutton recognized that voice. She had once listened to an entire audio book being narrated in that voice. She whirled around and came face to face with none other than Loki.

"What's going on," she snapped. She could remember the chase up to this point. There was still a pumping panic rushing through her like the adrenaline was still with her. "Where are we? I thought-"

"That you had gotten yourself captured? Of course you have. You have been drugged. We are in your mind. Surely, you must have realized?"

Sutton spun in a full circle but it was still an inky void save for her and Loki. He was back in his Asgardian casual wear and sneering disdainfully at her.

"If this is my mind, then are you-"

"A figment of your subconscious? Don't be daft. You have continuously given me much more credit than you realize, mortal. Your people are proving to be _very_ useful."

His face split into a grin as he said this and it gave Sutton shivers.

"Why are you here," she deflected. There was only enough room in her mind for one Loki mystery at a time. And she still had yet to solve the first one. "You all left me to myself! And if you think you can get me to tell you where I am so you can kidnap me, you're out of luck!"

Loki's smile disappeared as quick as it'd come and he took one menacing step towards her.

" _Pathetic woman._ If I wanted to find you, I wouldn't need your assistance."

Sutton threw up her chin and scowled at him like she hadn't dared before. She blamed the drugs.

"I'm sure," she said coyly. "Because you've continually showed yourself to be _more_ than capable."

His green eyes glinted even in the darkness as he regarded her.

" _Bold_ ," he admonished.

Sutton felt that burst of boldness sink into a nervous boil. She- she had just been apprehended by the United States government! The last she remembered, _she'd been pulled into a car_. Loki was only proving to be an unappreciated, additional stressor. Maybe a little bit more than stressful.

She watched as there was a spark in the darkness when Loki began to wave one elegant hand in the air. Sutton straightened her stance and eyed him warily.

"What are you doing?"

"My goodness," he cooed. His head cocked to the side in intrigue. "You _have_ been worried."

He twisted his hand so his palm faced upwards and orange light sparked above it like fireworks. Sutton felt all the apprehension that currently filled her rise to the surface of her being as if summoned.

"I was beginning to wonder if you'd taken my words seriously or not," he continued.

Sutton got the uneasy feeling that he was sifting through her thoughts or feelings.

"What are you here for," she bit out. "If you hadn't noticed, I'm in a bit of a situation and you really aren't helping."

Loki gave one last flourish of his hand and then lowered it slowly, clasping both hands behind his back. The flickers of light that he'd summoned fizzled out and drifted away. Sutton's nostrils flared as he took his sweet time in answering her.

"Be still," he chastised. "It is not as if you have anywhere else to be."

Sutton leaned back and crossed her arms over her chest, her lip curling showing how _not_ amused she was.

"I _could_ be using this time to plan my escape, you know," she told him. "Like I stated before, I've found myself suddenly lacking in the _hero_ department. You can tell them thanks for nothing, by the way, as soon as you _get out of my head._ "

Loki's lip slanted up the slightest bit, as if he were sharing a joke with himself or he found her amusing somehow.

"My pleasure," he said, tilting his head to the side in a nod. Sutton slumped slightly at his flippancy and wearily rubbed right between her eyes while letting out a deep breath. She could feel something beginning to claw back up her stomach that threatened to send her curled up on the floor. Well, if her mind _had_ a floor.

"Was there a point to this," she asked. She desperately tried to prevent her voice from cracking or wavering. He didn't deserve to get any perverse pleasure from her unavoidable fear.

Loki kicked one booted foot out as he began to stroll around the black. His lean form seemed to fill the emptiness as he circled around her.

"Ah yes," Loki practically hummed. " _Purpose."_

He strode around her in a spiral getting closer with each pass until he was a hands length away from touching her.

"I believe I was _supposed_ to tell you-"

Sutton watched, wide-eyed, as his entire body flickered dramatically like a sputtering candle and then vanished. She blinked a couple times to confirm that he was, in fact, gone and then her face reddened.

"Loki! _You pond scum filled bean bag_ ," she shouted. "You get back here _right now_ and tell me! _Loki!_ "

But he was gone and a couple more blinks later Sutton felt herself fading again.

"Oh no."

She tried to reach out as if to hold onto her own unconsciousness.

" _No, no. I don't want to wake up!"_

The next time she blinked, bits of light poked through the darkness. The air was stuffy and Sutton felt groggy and disoriented. It was as if she'd taken an unexpected nap and slept much later than she'd planned. A shadow shifted in front of her and she felt herself tense.

"Miss Regan."

The darkness was suddenly lifted and Sutton winced against the new light. She tried to focus and get her bearings. She was sitting in a chair at a table. Her hands were now cuffed to the table's surface. All furniture was metal and she suddenly realized how uncomfortable she was. It was with great trepidation that she finally looked up to examine the man sitting across from her. He was in his late forties to early fifties at least, with warm skin and dark hair that was graying around the temples. A file was laid out before him on the table and he rested one hand on it casually.

"Hello," the man continued on. "I am Agent Perez and I'm in charge of your case. Do you know why you're here?"

Sutton ran her tongue along the roof of her mouth to try and clear out the cotton build up. She settled with just shaking her head _no._ Agent Perez smiled politely and tapped the file in front of him.

"I'm afraid that you're under investigation, Miss Regan. And I think you _do_ know why."

Sutton swallowed, her eyes shifting around the room as she tried to subtly stretch her arms.

"I don't know," she croaked out. "But-but there must have been a misunderstanding."

Agent Perez's smile thinned and he reminded her of Coulson in that moment. Unpredictable, cordial, and a bit condescending all at once. Without another word, he meticulously opened the file and pulled out a single photograph. As he pushed it towards her, Sutton sank in her seat slightly.

"This is your home, isn't it Miss Regan? This is how we found it." He _tsked_ once and shook his head. "Quite a mess. Don't tell me that you were going to leave it like that while you went on an... _impromptu_ _vacation_."

She had already seen the destruction first hand, of course, but seeing it being used as a piece of evidence against her was another thing. She didn't know what to say, so she remained silent. Agent Perez let the quiet linger a bit before he sighed quietly.

"Miss Regan," he began. "You have had, up to this point, a spotless record. Good grades in school, college credits, and a whole future before you. Now, you must realize that this isn't the _usual_ means of criminal justice. But you have been linked to an unexplainable event and were handling explosive materials in your home. You are not in a very good spot right now; it would be in your best interest to cooperate."

Sutton glanced up at him through her lashes, one eyebrow arching up.

"Unexplainable event?"

Agent Perez reached back into the file and pulled out a piece of paper. Sutton could make out a few lines dipping and rising across a graph above a series of numbers and percentages that she didn't understand the meaning of. When she looked back up at him, the agent seemed to be trying to gauge her reaction. Finally he sat back in his chair and gestured toward the page.

"Those are the readings that we received the night of March thirtieth, in the area of Puyallup. The very neighborhood, in fact, that you dropped your friend Chase off in. Our best men and women are stumped by those electrical readings. And it seemed as if you were trying to recreate those same currents in that explosion. You have also lied about any knowledge of this occurrence, according to our field team. This is quite concerning for us, Miss Regan."

Sutton eyed the paper a moment more, her heart starting to beat a bit faster. That paper could be useful! Without access to JARVIS, Tony wasn't able to really pick up much information about their trip to this universe. Maybe they could use this to further their research!

_Oh wait._

Sutton grimaced, then tried to hide it. They didn't _need her help._ They were the reason she was in this mess in the first place.

" _Us,_ " she questioned instead.

He only lifted closed lips marginally and remained quiet about it.

"Can I count on your cooperation, Miss Regan?"

Sutton could feel her eyes welling up again and it ticked her off.

"I wish I could help you, but I can't," she said.

Agent Perez began to gather his documents with a disappointed shake of his head.

"That's really too bad. With your record, you could have made a plea bargain."

Her stomach clenched as the man moved from his chair and approached the room's only door, located behind him. She watched him leave, a crazed desperation beginning to tear through her. This couldn't be it! She was normal, her life was _normal!_ Prison and non-existent trials were never in the cards for her! She gave one angry tug on the cuffs after he closed the door but they held true.

_Oh, God. Not this. She would never see the outside world again._

Her heart seeped poison at the thought of her once heroes. They had used her as a diversion, she bet. A scape goat. It seemed so wrong, but she couldn't come up with any other explanation for their disappearance. Unless, _what was Loki supposed to tell her?_

Sutton scoffed at herself and leaned forward, bending almost parallel to the ground, to swipe at her eyes. No, they were jerk-osaurus rexs' and Loki was a manipulative tool and that was that.

They sent in a woman an hour or two after Agent Perez left. She began with similar questions that Sutton refused to answer. If she couldn't lie believably, then she just wouldn't say anything at all. And then the lady tried to delve a little deeper.

_What are you targeting?_

_Who are you working for?_

_Are you being coerced by another organization?_

_Are you attempting to retaliate against your mother's assaulter?_

That got her attention, and Sutton snapped her head up. It was a totally irrelevant question for the situation, she was sure. Her stomach caught on fire.

_Yes, ma'am. I am trying to create a new weapon of mass destruction, or some such, for my own little plan of vigilantism._

She realized why they'd sent in a woman now. The female agent noted her upset reaction and latched onto it.

"Has this been festering for a long time, Sutton?"

Sutton just grit her teeth and steeled herself. She'd already dealt with this a long time ago. A couple measly questions weren't going to touch her. Instead, she turned her head away and glared at the wall.

"Well, ' _Us'_ certainly does their homework."

The woman gave what was supposed to be a warm, understanding smile and leaned in for the kill.

"I'm sure it must have been difficult for you, knowing what happened while growing up."

Her fingers were curling into her palms before she let them go slack and casually jerked her head to get her bangs out of her eyes.

" _Agent,"_ Sutton said firmly. She'd forgotten the woman's name the moment it'd been given, so she left it out. "My family's business is _my family's business._ The...unfortunate events leading to my...uh... _conception_ , have nothing to do with this. _I'm sure_. I wouldn't- I would never waste my life like this after my mother let me even have one. If you think bringing it up is going to make me crack or something, you can forget it."

The woman leaned back and stared at her coolly. This was the most Sutton had dared speak the entire interrogation and now she shut her mouth once again. She was still scared, incredibly so, but she wouldn't let them use her mother's abuse to cow her. If anything, it just riled her up. Nobody messed with her mother.

The female agent didn't say anything further. She just gave Sutton an odd look and scooted her chair away from the table. And then she left.

Sutton didn't exactly know what to make of that. She was left alone once again in that bland room to wait until they decided to come back to her. Already she'd been stuck in her chair, cuffed to a table, for hours.

_You're fine, you're fine. You are strong. You can do this._

She was tired again, and she wondered what time it actually was and how long she'd been drugged for. It hadn't felt like long when she'd been talking to Loki, but there was no way of knowing how time differed from your mind to the real world. She'd already tried just sleeping where she sat, but the chair was too hard and the lights were too bright and she was too afraid of what might happen when she wasn't aware.

Time was all she had and, stuck in that room, it seemed like there was plenty of it. It left her with nothing to do but think; and she did. She though about her job and how that was _totally bust now_ ; Jen would just have to suffer through alone. And Chase. Would he even know that he was pretty much responsible for her being singled out in the first place?

_I am coming back to haunt your butt for sure, buddy. Just you wait._

And her mom, of course, and Howard who was actually a great guy and magnificent chief, and Tyrese who was way smarter than her already at only twelve. She'd gotten him a fancy calculator for his birthday and _he'd liked it._

Her eyes wandered around the room idly before the door to the interrogation room slammed open and then was roughly shut again in a hurry. Sutton snapped up in her seat, the whites of her eyes shining as her breath caught. Agent Perez was back and he didn't look happy.

"Who is here," he demanded. Something was terribly wrong. He looked shaken and he was speaking so quickly that a hint of an accent showed itself.

"I don't know what you're talking about! What's going on?"

Agent Perez threw his file with the paperwork on her down on the table as he leaned in to stare her directly in the eyes.

"Who are you working with? _Who?_ "

Sutton was entirely confused. It wasn't that unusual, now that she thought back on it, but she still didn't like it.

"What?"

The door to the room suddenly shuddered, the handle wiggled, and Agent Perez's face hardened considerably. He left her at the table, nearing the door and reached it just as it flew open. Sutton watched as he raised an arm in defense, but it did him no good.

It was Natasha!

The red-headed warrior charged into the room and deflected Agent Perez's blow. In one smooth motion she pulled down on the hand he'd tried to level her with and threw out her own opposite fist, catching him right in the face. Agent Perez stumbled back, cheek bleeding and swelling instantly, and Natasha finished him. She took advantage of the fact that he was hunched over and brought one graceful leg up against his temple. Agent Perez slumped on the floor and didn't move again, save for the small ups and downs of his chest.

Sutton stared flabbergasted. She could only blink wide eyes at the Avenger and gape.

"You. Are. _Amazing_. But I am still totally mad at you!"

Natasha rolled her eyes and used a tool she pulled out of the hoodie she was wearing to unlock the cuffs around Sutton's wrists.

"Wonderful," she said dryly. "But we'll have to deal with that later. Come on." She began striding for the door. "We don't have a lot of time."

Sutton began to follow before she was struck with a thought and ran back to the table.

"Just a second!"

Quickly, she snatched up the file and then ran to make up the lost distance. Her heart finally swelled with the sureness that hope brought.

_She was going to be free._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! They're back!


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sutton gets some answers.

Barton was directly outside the door when Sutton emerged from the interrogation room. His bow was at the ready and his eyes were sharp as they watched the hallway.

"We have maybe three minutes until the cameras are back up. We need to move," he said.

Natasha gave him a firm nod and the three of them began the trek out. Sutton's first reaction was to whack Clint with his own bow, but seeing as how time was of the essence she curbed her impulses for once.

_The Avengers were teaching her more patience than babysitting toddlers ever had._

The hall was sparse of anything. It lacked any photographs, color, or fake plants sitting at the ends or in a corner. Clearly it was purely a functional feature, simply leading from one room to another. The lights were low, she was sure the team had something to do with that, and the most attention grabbing item was the blinking red alarm at the end of the hall. They moved down further and took a right. There were more doors that they passed on either side, but they ignored them and continued on.

"Where are we even at," Sutton asked in a whisper, interrupting the silence. "Are we still in the same state?"

Clint gave a sharp nod, bow still at the ready, and Natasha elaborated.

"We're on the eastern side of the state now. This is an underground facility in the desert run by that agency we informed you of. Right now we need to get topside."

"Two minutes," Clint said.

Sutton had a lot of questions still, but she was tired and a bit sore from sitting for so long and she really did want to get out of here, so she stayed quiet and continued to follow the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. They came to another fork in the hallway and took a left. It was like Natasha and Clint ran this facility themselves with how sure their directions were. It must not have been a very large facility because at the end of this hall was a wide set of double doors and an exit sign. Sutton felt her body practically sigh. The relief was vanished when a metal door right beside them burst open and six men with guns barreled out. Sutton let out a surprised shriek and stumbled back, almost falling over in her haste to backtrack. But the other two didn't even flinch.

Clint let one arrow fly from a point blank range into one of the men's thigh and then spun around, grabbing that arrow on the way and yanking it out, using it to stab another man in the abdomen. Natasha lunged forward in a blink and gripped the closest man's wrist, twisting it until he let out a cry and dropped his weapon into her awaiting hand. With his own gun she pistol whipped him in the back of the head while passing on to deflect and whip the next guy.  
Sutton watched in wonder and horror as they worked to take down every man in their way. It was like watching an extremely violent dance. Clearly they had worked extensively with each other before, especially since they even used the other's movements to help take out the remaining two men. There was the sound of thundering footsteps congregating on their position in the hallway and then the sharp order to keep moving. She had to shake herself out of her trance as they pushed open the double doors and finally stepped out into the hot sunlight.

_Freedom._

It was always much warmer on the eastern side of the state. It was desert, in fact. Sutton didn't like it. After spending hours in a small concrete box, being interrogated and facing life in prison or worse, and being currently chased by suited cronies, her first sight of freedom was dirt and tumble weeds. It was not inspiring. Off in the distance a van sat waiting that struck Sutton as familiar somehow.

"Come on. Hurry."

She followed Clint and Natasha's lead as they broke into a run heading for the van and wasn't surprised when the side door opened for them upon arrival.

"'Bout time," Tony commented from the driver's seat. "What's the matter, a bit much for just a two man team?"

"Just drive, Stark," Natasha said flatly.

Tony saluted her mockingly and put the car into drive before speeding off. Sutton lurched back into a seat and quickly reached for a seatbelt. Luckily she'd gotten into a middle row instead of the back this time and didn't have to sit cramped next to Thor and Loki. Thor smiled at her when she craned her head to look around.  
"Lady Sutton, you are well!"  
"Fortunately, for now," she said. Tony was driving at speeds she was quite sure to be illegal even on a race track and it took her a moment to get her head on straight. She considered how she wanted to address the abandonment dilemma. Now, or later? During a possible car chase usually wasn't the best time. And she should probably should go about it delicately without casting hostile accusations.

"Of course I wouldn't be in this mess IF YOU HADN'T LEFT ME AT THE FREAKING BORDER OF CANADA ALONE."

There were sounds of insulted disbelief, the kind people make when you blame them for something they think isn't their fault. Sutton just crossed her arms and fumed, daring them to contradict her.

"You weren't at the pick up spot," accused Clint. Sutton scoffed.

"I waited! Everyone was gone! What was I supposed to think?"

"We left to get a different car," he explained. "They would have recognized yours. Now _that_ plan went out the window, thanks to you."

Bruce intervened in the conversation.

"We would have been back sooner, but we ran into a little... _fan_ issue."

Sutton raised one brow.

"Excuse me?"

"A few people might have, uh, recognized us. It caused a little bit of a stir."

Steve shook his head in the most perplexed manner from the front passenger seat.

"Those... _Loki's Army_ girls are no joke."

Sutton blushed and rubbed at her head, everyone else seemed to feel awkward, Loki's face crinkled in distaste from the back seat. There was really too much going on right now to worry about them being recognized.

_Never thought she'd think that._

She tried to bring the conversation back on topic.

"Did you ever think that it still might have been a good idea to maybe tell me about your plan? A little, ' _hey, Sutton, we're going to go steal a car, if we're not here when you get out just stick around_ ' would have been nice. Communication goes a long way, you know. I've been sucked into this as well and I have quite a bit to lose too."

"Next time," Clint deadpanned. She rolled her eyes.

"We did try to tell you that we were coming for you," Steve said. He seemed eager to mend the unhappy look she still sported. "We tried to see if one of Loki's projections could find you but it didn't work."

Sutton stiffened in her seat and turned slowly to the guilty party in the back. She could murder him with just the look she was giving him and all he did was grin.

"Did you," she said stiltedly. "Well, that's too bad. We can't blame him though, it's not his fault if his magic isn't powerful enough for a task like that."

" _Bold_ ," he said again. Softly; just for her.

Thor either didn't hear or didn't understand, because he patted Loki a bit roughly on the shoulder and smiled hopefully at Sutton.

"My brother did try," he said. "I know that he also was concerned for your safety, although he did not say it."

Sutton turned back around in her seat. She knew everyone was aware that Thor's hopeful statement was just that, a desperate hope for a loved one. She could understand that, she supposed. If Tyrese suddenly became a twelve year old genocidal maniac, she would be devastated. But the only reason Loki would be concerned with her at all was because she was still useful to him. Settling in her seat for the next who-knows-how-many hours, Sutton fiddled with the file in her lap absently. It was only when one of the pages almost gave her a paper cut that she realized that she had yet to mention having intel.

"Oh!" She lifted the file up for everyone to see. "I didn't totally mess everything up! Look, I got information on the readings from the night when you all appeared here!"

"What!" The car swerved dangerously to the right before jumping back to the middle of the lane as Tony balked in the front seat. Sutton yelped while dropping the file onto her lap and clutched her seat, digging in her nails like a frightened cat, and prayed valiantly for the car not to roll over. "You are just now mentioning this?"

Prying one hand away, Sutton handed the file to Bruce, who was sitting next to her, and let him look through it. His eyes roamed over the information before shining in a hunger that she hadn't seen him express before.

"This could be...very helpful."

Sutton beamed.

"Yeah," she said smugly. As the car seemed to be settled and still on the road, she forced herself to relax. She dusted some imaginary dirt off her shoulder. "I had _Agent Perez_ right where I wanted him." She said his name in her best mocking Antonio Banderas voice. Unfortunately, the team did not look like they believed that so much. She huffed dramatically and sighed. "Fine, maybe not. But you'll be pleased to know that I didn't tell them anything. Literally. I was quiet the whole time."

Tony snorted. "You. Quiet?"

Sutton glared at his headrest.

"It is possible," she said.

"Prove it."

She stuck her tongue out and kicked lightly at the back of his seat. And it was as she settled back in her own seat that she felt the exhaustion that she'd been staving off come creeping back. The horizon was dull and flat, only a small hill or dust devil to break up the scenery. The monotony was making her eyes heavy. This time her chair was cushioned and the company was _slightly_ more agreeable. Sutton leaned back and closed her eyes, a small smile on her face.

When she woke back up, Clint was driving again, Tony was sitting next to her, people were chattering at a respectable volume, and there were several bags of fast food in between the front two bucket seats. Clint glanced back in the review mirror and shook his head.

"Like the dead," he said.

Sutton ignored him and stretched as much as space and decency would allow. Eagerly, she reached for one of the fast food bags and dug around until she found something that hadn't been bitten out of yet. The hamburger was verging on cold but, as she was sure she hadn't eaten in at least a day, she didn't care. After she finished the first one, she went back to the bag for more.  
It looked like they were already almost into California, and Sutton nodded to herself. So they were still heading for the lab.

_Cool._

Sutton was able to get a couple of them to participate in a rousing round of The Alphabet game as they drove; which unsurprisingly didn't actually make the time pass by any quicker. The Avengers obviously didn't appreciate the finer aspects and cultural norms of the family road trip. Well, not that they were family or anything! It was just boring to sit in silence and Sutton didn't want them asking about her experience in getting kidnapped or interrogated or something dumb like that. They passed the Oregon-California border before long and Sutton was grateful that Berkeley was only half way down the state. They were still racing the clock, she knew that, but it was easy to forget in the safety of the van.

Tony was still re-reading the scientific notes that she'd procured as they entered the Golden State. She craned her head a bit to get a better look at the paper again. It still looked like a jumble of lines and numbers that far exceeded her pre-Chem and pre-Calc classes combined.

"So that actually helps," she said just to say something. "At least you guys understand it."

"It's very simple, actually," Tony said a bit haughtily. "But I guess it can be of some use. Your dimension could use a Tony Stark. I probably could have taken these readings with my cell phone."

Sutton rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"We already have Robert Downey Jr. He's pretty much the same thing. Minus all the tech, I guess. Trust me, we don't need two of you."

Tony snorted indignantly.

"You couldn't afford me anyway." He looked down at the paper again and then back up at her as if he couldn't understand what was so complicated about all of it. "What did you say you went to college for?"

"I didn't say," Sutton said just as haughtily. "You never asked. But I was trying to get become a certified interpreter, for the Deaf. You know, sign language. You don't really need much math and science for that. But it's kind of a competitive field and school is expensive, so, you know, I'm just taking a break. I'll go back. I just need to save up a bit more."

Tony's lip pulled back and he nodded to himself but didn't say much in response on the topic. But he'd brought the topic up; it was his fault, really, and Sutton couldn't help but delve into a one-sided conversation about the subject.

_It was totally it's own language_ , the sentence structure was even different than with English, and don't even get her started on SEE signing. She told them things they probably would never remember or care about. Like how controversial cochlear implants were in the Deaf community, and then she told them all about the Deaf community. She told them about how she'd taken Sign Language in high school because Spanish was full and Japanese was too hard and she'd loved how you could express ideas in movements. You could create stories with your hands and body or...or... _oh_. _Oh!_

Create stories.

_Create stories!_

Sutton sucked in a breath and suddenly stilled in her seat. Everyone was too relieved that she'd finally stopped talking to notice her struck expression. Oh, how could she have missed it? The pieces were finally beginning to fall into place in her mind. _Stan Lee created the Avengers._ He'd even gotten sick since they'd been here. He...he essentially wrote them into being. _His brain children_. And people _believed_ in them.

_'What do_ you _believe?'_

Oh snap, oh snap, _oh snap!_

Sutton felt her body flush hot with an odd mixture of excitement and fear. She still didn't understand everything, but she felt closer than she ever had before. Did, did Loki think that she could do something crazy, like create worlds? _Was that even what this was?_

She tried to subtly look back to the last row of seats. Loki was staring blandly out the window at scenery that was probably beneath him, but his gaze flickered as he sensed her eyes on him. He turned his head to stare back at her, his eyes far too searching and knowing. His head tilted down into a predatory look as he studied her stricken face. Sutton swallowed nervously. She wanted to ask questions and demand answers right now. Especially now that she knew the right sorts of questions to ask. But all she could see when she tried to move her tongue were flashes of her mother looking up in terror at a glowing scepter or something and that killed any desire to act out.

Loki didn't grin or smirk at her this time. No, the look he gave her now was much more frightening. As if he were allowing her to truly see him, Sutton noticed how dark the rings under his eyes had gotten; there was a hunger in his eyes that only seemed to grow. Something was obviously eating away at him, and he was planning on using her to fix it.

_Well, not today, buddy! Not ever!_

She had not survived an explosion, the feds, and this road trip just to be taken advantage of by Loki Laufeyson, or Odinson, or whatever he wouldn't kill her for addressing him as. Sutton turned back around in her seat and avoided any gazes that drifted over her. Oh, this was bad. Worse than she'd even dreamed of, if she actually was on the right track. She _couldn't_ be right though, because she was _normal. Ordinary._ Normal, ordinary people didn't have any weird abilities that made them targets for mentally unstable antagonists. But most of all she couldn't, _could not,_ be right because if she was then there was no way she could hope that Loki would forget about her. There was no way he'd just leave her alone. And she really couldn't afford to think like that.

_The Avengers are here. They beat Loki once already. They can protect me now. Just breath and think about it later._

California traffic never really stopped moving and they'd missed rush hour, so they were cruising at a respectable pace. They'd be in Berkeley before long. Even as she felt a twinge inside her at the thought, Sutton knew that it was for the best. She couldn't keep these people here. Well, first of all, because she _literally_ couldn't. When these guys put their mind to something, there was no stopping them. But it was also a selfish idea in the first place. They didn't belong here. They missed home. She would say goodbye, and then she'd be safe from Loki, and she'd of had an unimaginable experience that no one else on earth could claim. It would be something for her to treasure.

_Oh gosh, she was not going to start crying. They would never let her live it down._

The laboratory was located on some hills above the San Francisco Bay and it had an amazing view as they drove higher above the water. Everyone seemed to get antsier the closer they got to the facility. They'd stopped for bathroom breaks, sure, but everyone was ready for a real shower, bed, home. The sooner they cracked the code to inter-dimensional travel the better. Sutton was suddenly struck by the absurdity of all of it.

They were going to run in and just work on making something that could teleport people between worlds. Like it was no big deal. Like it wasn't something that should be impossible or completely fictional.

"So how are we doing this," Bruce spoke up from next to her. "We don't have any badges or key cards, and by now we're all currently on America's Most Wanted list."

Natasha turned quickly from the front passenger seat to shoot a coy smirk at them.

"Been there, done that."

Clint rolled the van to a stop before they actually reached the lab gates and consequently drew unneeded attention to themselves. Steve leaned forward from his seat in the row behind Sutton as if to conspire.

"Our plan needs to be a bit more extensive than just to attack this time," he said glibly.

Tony squinted eyes at the patriot and gave a sneer that spoke of how _unfunny_ he thought the inside joke.

"You know I can't agree with you based purely off principle, right? _Captain Tight Pants_."

"If earth's authorities are indeed pursuing us," said Thor, "then it would be best to proceed with haste."

Sutton wondered if that was the polite Asgardian equivalent of, "shut up and get moving".

It was still daylight, and the lab didn't look like a slow place of business. Cars were coming and going and the building itself was immense, with who knows how many people inside. It seemed like she'd come to the same conclusion as Clint, even though he beat her to the punch in expressing the idea.

"I say we go back into town, clean up and regroup, and then come back here this evening. It'll be less populated then and it gives us more time to prepare. Tasha and I can try and scout the premises before we all stampede in there."

The team agreed and Sutton was ecstatic at the idea of a shower, food, and a nap on an actual bed. Unfortunately, the agents had stolen her envelope of cash when she'd been taken into custody, but the team was still obviously able to accrue credit somehow. Sutton was sure that it was by a bit more illegal and risky means, which was why they had made her life savings the first choice at the start.

_Wait. Crap! She'd just lost her life savings and her job!_

She'd have to move back in with her mom now. Hadn't she swore that she would never do that? Tyrese would ask her stupid math questions on a daily basis just to make her feel dumb. She would have to put up with her mother's obese cat that begged at dinner consistently and they'd shove her into the cramped exercise/pottery space that had been her old room so long ago.

_So much for finally reaching adult status._

As they entered the town, Sutton was sent in to secure a couple rooms for the group. They gave her a men's sweater and a ball cap to tuck her hair into just in case, but even with her recent outlaw status she was the least conspicuous out of all of them. The hotel clerk gave a judgmental glance at her wardrobe but still gave her the adjoining rooms. Sutton felt a bit uneasy about that fact given her sudden revelation about Loki's potential plan. But, this hotel was nicer than the one she'd stayed at by herself, so she couldn't say too much. All she had to do was make sure that there was a door shut between herself and the villain at all times, right?

Somehow, she didn't feel like that was really going to be an option.


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sutton gets a bit melodramatic and Hawkeye gets suspicious.

She knew the minute she'd lied down after a shower that it hadn't been the best choice to make. The black void surrounded her once again and her spine tightened in anticipation of who would be visiting. A pressure seemed to bubble up through her, boiling through her veins at his audacity.

_How dare he!_

She had let him have the upper hand this entire time because he was _Loki_. Part of it spawned from fear and part of it was her inner fangirl hoping if she was nice, he'd grow fond of her. Well, no more! She was not going to be pushed around, intimidated, and used in some unknown nefarious plot!

There was a puff of warm air near her ear and in response Sutton spun around with a fist leveled at his face. She'd put all her strength in that punch, even gritting her teeth in effort, but the movement was cut short when Loki gripped her hand. Sutton let out a grunt of air at the sudden stop of momentum. Looking up at Loki, she noted the half-lidded eyes and raised brow. Giving him a sneer of her own, she tried to pull her hand free out of his grasp, but he only tightened his hold. She let out a cry of pain as he squeezed far beyond comfort and twisted her hand down.

"Unwise," he reprimanded, "when facing someone much stronger and more skilled than yourself."

"This is _my_ head," Sutton argued.

"And yet, I am a free visitor in it." Loki gave one last squeeze of her hand and then shoved her away. Sutton staggered back, clutching her wrist, and gave him another of her harshest glares. It bounced right off him and plopped on the floor.

"What do you want _now?_ Geesh, can't a girl get a few hours of unmolested sleep? I hope you realize that you're not winning any points in-"

"Shut up," Loki snapped. "I came only to find out what it is you know."

Sutton froze and backed away a step, swaying her arms up and then clasping them behind her back.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Loki's demeanor darkened and he took a heavy step in her direction.

"Do not test me," he warned. His voice lowered an octave as he continued on. "Need I remind you that I have access to your mind? If need be, I could tear through every memory you possess, every thought you've ever had, to find what I'm looking for. Will that be necessary?"

Sutton bit her lip and stalled, but he did not seem to be in a humorous mood. Once again she noted the darkness under his eyes; the way he clenched his left fist, then relaxed it only to repeat it again. His skin even seemed a bit sallow, as if he hadn't been truly sleeping. She decided she didn't want to test him.

"No, it won't be necessary," she said stiffly.

The smile that stretched over his face was false and all teeth.

"Wonderful. Now, what did your pathetic, human mind work out, _hmm?_ "

Sutton knew that she would have to answer him carefully. He was not known as the _god of mischief_ for nothing and if she blurted out everything she thought she knew, he might not give her any new info at all. She regarded him just as carefully as he watched her before spitting out the only concepts she knew for certain.

"Imagination and belief."

Loki's head tilted up and his gaze intensified and Sutton knew that she was on the right track.

"Quite astute of you," he mocked. "Did it take you this long to puzzle that out?"

She recognized goading when she heard it, she hadn't dealt with junior high boys and a little brother and learnt nothing. Still, she was willing to indulge him in the hopes that he'd tell her more. Not that she could outwit him, but she could play off his pride and hope that she didn't push him too far. She decided to take a gamble in her guessing.

"You want to use me to create a new world," she accused. "Well, it won't happen!"

"Of course it won't, don't be an _idiot_. I want you unattached."

That gave Sutton pause. Loki could read her confusion as clearly as if she'd erected a billboard proclaiming it, evidenced by his body language. He leaned back on one heel and relaxed his shoulders slightly.

" _Ah_ , so you still don't fully understand then."

"Why don't you enlighten me?"

Loki's eyes glittered mischief as he bared down on her.

"And why would I do that when you are so wonderfully ignorant?"

Sutton floundered for a threat worthy enough to strike him. This is exactly what she was afraid of happening.

"Because, because I'll tell everyone what you're up to!" She thought back to the incident in her SUV. "I'll write!"

"And I'll slit the throat of anyone you care about," he replied nonplussed.

Sutton bluffed.

"And I'll slit my own," she said. "Or maybe I'll snag one of Barton's exploding arrows. There are plenty of ways to make sure I'm unavailable to you."

Loki hissed at her through his teeth and shot down until their noses were practically touching.

"Still so pathetic at lying," he seethed. "Unfortunately, you do not have my permission to die."

Sutton tried to remain firm, her nostrils flaring even as she felt her knees quiver.

" _Tell me_." The sharpness in her gaze spoke that her phrasing had been intentional. Loki snapped his body back and scowled at her.

"You continuously attempt to provoke me," he ground out.

"You know," Sutton started, "no one can help you if you don't ask for it. Believe it or not, there are people who care about you; that want you to be ok. _Happy_ even. Your mother being one of them. You don't have to face everything alo-"

"You are nothing but a an instigator and a conduit," Loki interrupted angrily.

Sutton fought back a smirk even as the sympathy for him she'd been beating down tried to rise up. Nothing got broken or uncomfortable people to try and change the subject like bringing up feelings. She should know, she'd done it more than once.

He began to pace around the darkness while Sutton remained rooted to her one spot. It was an unsettling feeling to step out when it looked like there wasn't a floor. She waited for Loki to continue his explanation.

"Believe me, I would have rather had one of the more powerful ones," he snarled. "Stan Lee himself, or that _woman_ , _Rowling._ But they're already locked in and attached to their own stories and beliefs. But you," he suddenly cooed lowly, " _you_ have wasted your opportunity and I am going to take full advantage of that."

Sutton still did not really understand.

"So they can create worlds and people just by writing," she clarified. "And then they can't, can't what? Make any more?"

Loki paused in his pacing, looking annoyed.

" _Like a child,_ " he muttered to himself. "No, these individuals have the _capacity_ , the _imagination_ , to create worlds. But what powers them are your planet's _belief_ in them. Look at yourself," he gestured lazily at her. "All the potential to create a powerful, real, world, but none of the motivation or support. I suppose you could write until your fingers bled, though I rather you didn't, but if no one believes in your story it will only ever be just that. Words on a page."

"Ok, so," Sutton tried to make sense of it all. "You can't use Rowling because she controls the world of Harry Potter and that's where her focus is. But, Stan Lee is already focused on your world, so why-"

"Because he is the _foundation_ of it!" Loki snapped at her, finally having enough with her confusion. "To pull him into his own creation would be catastrophic. Even _I_ would not cause chaos and destruction to that end."

He stepped forward and gripped half her face with one large hand and forced her to look at him. She did not appreciate how hands on he was becoming.

"But you," his rich voice rolled around her, sinking into her skin and squeezing around her heart with icy fingers. " _But you_ are free of any anchors to tie you down. Your beliefs and ideas are fluid and _oh-so_ easy to manipulate. With you as a channel and your people's theories and ideas as a foundation... Well, that time will come."

He released her then and Sutton fell back sputtering.

"You think I can twist and manipulate your world just going off popular _theories and "facts"_ that fans made up? Or that they'd be willing to accept?"

"No, I know you _will_ , because I command it."

"I won't," she shouted, suddenly very afraid. "I won't do it, I don't care what happens, I won't!"

Loki once again looked unbothered as if no part of this conversation had ever riled him.

"Do you have a choice," he asked. "From the very moment you ran across us, have you really ever had a choice in anything?"

When she blinked, Loki was gone and she was sitting up on the hotel bed; panting and shivering. A shaky hand came up to brush back her hair as she tried to steady her breathing. When she glanced about the room, she noticed that she was getting a few concerned and pitying looking from the people on this side of the adjoining rooms. She flushed red and scowled.

"You ok, Hermione," Tony asked.

Sutton snapped her head over and sent him a frightened look. Had he heard something? Did he know? But his eyes quickly glanced up at her hair and she understood.

"Oh," she sighed in relief. She patted down her curls again. "Yeah, I'm fine. I'm good."

She tried to smile at them, but it quickly crumbled.

"Nightmares," Steve asked sympathetically. Sutton would rather he not ask questions like that despite her appreciation that he cared.

"Something like that," she answered vaguely. She noticed Clint's head tilt in her peripheral vision.

"About your interrogation?"

Sutton turned her head to look past him at the bathroom door.

"Yeah."

He didn't say anything else about it, but Sutton found him piercing her with his blue eyes and she realized her mistake. It was a blaring error on her part when he'd already pointed out her tell, but she felt frazzled and stretched apart. Why did she think she could fool the guy who'd figured out how the Tesseract worked before Selvig had?

_Crap. Maybe he'd just leave it alone._

And yet, she _wanted_ them to figure it out. She _wanted_ them to discover Loki's plot and save her. She yearned to tell them. Only the knowledge that the axe Loki had hanging over the heads of her loved ones was a very real threat kept her quiet. Or was it? Was he bluffing? Could she take that chance? Her heart had already decided from the beginning.

_No. No she couldn't._

But that was ok. She'd figure this out. She didn't need a man or a hero to save her. She would be like the strong female lead in her favorite stories and save herself! She had love on her side and Loki didn't. Isn't that how these things worked?

As Natasha and Clint, _always_ Natasha and Clint; they practically had their own Fred and Daphne thing going on, left to scout out the lab, Sutton felt no more rested than before. In fact, she felt worse. It threw her back to the beginning when Loki had been giving her unknowable nightmares. She'd never have thought that she could go from losing sleep from re-blogging his face to losing sleep from fearing him. Leave it to her to bear the brunt of the universe's own poetic irony.

_Why couldn't he be_ nice _Loki?_

_Or, "you-are-an-interesting-moral-that-I've-grown-fond-of" Loki?_

_Or even the desperate, "help-me-I'm-drowning-in my-own-pool-of-tears" Loki?_

It was just more evidence that the world was against her. Just because she'd been born from violence and fear didn't mean she deserved this!

The rest of the team milled around the hotel rooms either getting ready for the night's activities or resting. Tony actually still had her laptop, he'd said he made it "totally government-idiots hack proof", and he and Bruce were going over calculations on a program that she was certain she'd never downloaded. Sutton settled herself in the chair next to Steve as it was furthest away from Loki and, consequently, Thor who was still the only one capable of besting him physically. She spun a glass of tap water on the cheap table between the captain and herself languidly.

She wanted to pay attention, she _wanted_ to focus on the conversations going on around her, but her mind kept drifting away. It was like all the times she'd pushed the worries about her predicament away had compacted and were now spilling over. What would an Avenger do?

_Oh._

_Duh._

She could literally just ask one.

Taking a moment to thaw out her tongue and actually consider her words, Sutton watched as Steve stared somewhere past the wall in front of him.

"Hey, Steve," she spoke softly.

Steve turned away from the wall to look at her with rapt attention. She had never thought that someone could listen _differently_ just from being from another time, but it seemed like he did. You just knew that he was giving you his _full_ attention. His body language was even open with arms relaxed and feet pointed towards her. Stupid blue-eyed, blond haired boys. Sutton swallowed down her sudden nervousness.

"When you, I mean if you don't mind me asking, if it-" She grunted in frustration and tried to right herself. "Ok. You were able to...crash that plane because it was the _right_ thing to do and it was just you. But, but what if Peggy had been there? Or your friends? If they were going down with you, would you still have done it?"

Steve's face sobered more than it already had been. One of his brows twitched up before he readjusted himself in his seat.

"Why are you asking me this?"

Sutton leaned across the table, glass of water forgotten, as she splayed out her hands.

"I'm sorry. I know it's terrible for me to ask this, but, please, I just need to know. Would you still do the _"right"_ thing?"

Steve was quiet as he pondered her hypothetical scenario. Sutton chewed her bottom lip as her eyes flickered from Steve, to Loki, and back. It didn't seem like he was paying attention to the conversation, but one could never be sure. It was better to be safe than sorry, as they said, so she tried to remain vague.

"Well," began Steve, "I think if it was millions of lives at stake versus their own, they would have insisted on it. They all knew that sacrifice was necessary to win that war."

Sutton's heart sank even as she got the answer that she had expected.

"Why," he asked, suddenly leaning forwards toward her. "What's going on?"

He had lowered his voice to a low whisper and Sutton's eyes frantically flickered to Loki despite trying to not give herself away. Loki's gaze kept drifting over to her. Sutton swallowed once again and focused on Steve.

_Brilliant, wonderful, too observant and kind-hearted, Steve._

"Nothing," she insisted. "I was just-" _Curious_ sounded too callous a word. "I was just thinking."

Steve's mouth pulled down at the corners and his brow furrowed in concern.

"Mi- Sutton," he kept his voice lower still. Sutton felt the hairs on the back of her neck prickle.  
"Is...is Loki threatening you about something?"

Sutton pushed away from the table in a hurry.

"What? No! No," she forced out a nervous laugh. "He's- he's been on his best behavior, as you can see. I was just...I just wanted to get to know you better. You know, before you all go home."

He leaned back looking a bit disturbed.

"Ok," was all he said.

Sutton excused herself then and quickly used the bathroom to splash water on her face.

_How long had it even been since she last wore makeup?_

What she wouldn't give for a little foundation and a super tazer.

When she felt like her face wasn't so red, she reemerged and joined the others.

Tony and Bruce were still referencing the data she'd snagged them and creating their own notes. She strolled over to their table and peered down at the scribbles on various pages.

"So," she drawled out, acting casual. "Any new revelations, my little Einsteins?"

Tony gave a quirk of the lips and Bruce smile good-naturedly.

" _Please._ Einstein doesn't have anything on me."

Sutton gave him a look of disbelief.

"Um, he came up with the _t_ _heory of relativity._ "

"And _I_ discovered a new element _and_ created a fully functioning _high-tech prosthesis and_ saved the world four times."

She looked at him drolly.

"Pretty sure it's only three. And you _helped_ the third time."

Tony let out a huff and Bruce smirked to himself.

" _Will_ be four," he clarified.

She rolled her eyes but smiled genuinely. Something about Tony's arrogance was reassuring and she felt a little lighter. She wanted to give him a hug, but it'd probably be weird. Turning to Bruce, she gave him and expectant look.

"Seriously though. Figure anything out?"  
Bruce gestured at the paperwork while rubbing between his eyes.

"Well, now that we have specific numbers it should help with trying to replicate the original event. Though, we still need to hone in on everyone's frequencies and find the commonality. We're also going to need quite a substantial energy source."

Tony waved the worry away like it was no big deal.

"That shouldn't be a problem. If need be we can just plug Point Break into the machine and have him do his little lightning trick."

Apparently Thor had been listening because he piped up then.

"If it could be of assistance in sending us home, I would gladly summon some lightning, Man of Iron."

He also obviously didn't understand sarcasm. But that was more adorable than it was surprising.

"Oh my gosh," Sutton laughed. "That totally reminds me of a Youtube video. You guys have to see it. You don't mind being poked at a bit, do you? No? Great. Let me see _my_ laptop."

Seven videos later and Sutton was cackling as they finished the last one that everyone would tolerate.

"That's totally how it should have ended," she said while wiping at her eyes. It had to be the best thing; to watch a spoof video with the _actual_ people it was spoofing. It was brilliant. The best reactions ever. And it felt good to laugh for a moment. Almost too good. She had to reign herself in, actually, or it might have turned hysterical and cued everyone in to her cleverly disguised duress.

And then Clint and Natasha were finally back and everyone snapped to attention. They strolled in looking very serious and not a hair out of place, but there was just an energy about them that had Sutton wondering. There was an exchange of glances, almost too quick to notice, between the pair and Sutton struggled not to break out in a grin.

_Espionage OTP!_

"The lab closes at five every evening," stated Natasha looking very commanding and sure. "So it's pretty clear right now."

"Obviously there are some over-timers," cut in Clint, "and security guards. But they should be easy to avoid as long as-"

"-everyone does exactly what we say."

Both leveled harsh gazes at Loki and Tony, who held up his hands in surrender.

"Sheesh, you blow up _one toaster_ and suddenly everyone thinks you're irresponsible. Let's be realistic and worry more about Reindeer Games, here, who's been uncharacteristically very _boy scout_ in behavior."

Loki just picked at his nails, once again unbothered, as the two spies shot looks at him that clearly said,

_Oh, believe me, we_ are.

While Sutton wouldn't necessarily consider it _boy scout_ behavior, _he certainly wasn't helping little old ladies cross streets or selling popcorn for charity or anything_ , he also wasn't destroying anything (yet) either. Sutton guessed that was being "good" for him. Plus, she was also sure that he was saving up all his mischief for one big _trick._ Worse, she knew what that "trick" was.

She really should say something about it. An entire _planet_ was at stake, right? Six _billion-ish_ lives had to be more important than five or six. But her tongue remained still in her mouth.

"Let's go." Natasha interrupted her thoughts. "At least we can see if you can find any equipment you'll need tonight."

It turned out, not everyone needed to go. Sutton was a bit disappointed, she wanted to see the inside of the lab and watch Tony and Bruce do science. But the less people going the more stealthy they could be. She guessed she could understand that. Plus, it was clear that they didn't want Loki anywhere near the equipment.

Natasha was the one to take the two scientists up, along with Steve. Clint stayed behind with her and the two Asgardians to babysit.

It was not the most entertaining outcome she could think of. Sutton was sprawled out width-wise on one of the queen sized beds; her head and legs dangling off the ends. She could not stay in this hotel room all night. Especially not after Loki's monologue about her supposed _imminent future._

"You know what," she blurted while staring at the others upside down. "I'll go to that place across the street and get us some dinner."

She rolled herself off the mattress not caring if her shirt bunched up around her waist in the process. Her hair was still partially damp and threatening to frizz massively from the hotel shampoo and California weather, so she stuck it all up in a bun while she marched for the door. Luckily it was warmer down here than in western Washington and she didn't need to throw on a jacket.

"What money are you using again," Clint asked casually, not looking away from the TV. Sutton froze, patting at her pockets before she remembered that she had zero point zero dollars to her name now.

"Crap."

She saw Clint do a little eye-roll before he swung his legs off his chair and stood up.

"Come on, kid."

He took the lead, giving Thor instructions to hold down the fort and make sure his brother _(_ _not_ _his brother!)_ didn't run off to attempt world domination over this unsuspecting world. Sutton followed Clint out of the hotel room and out to the street. It was getting dark, since it still wasn't quite summer, and it helped to keep Sutton's mood subdued. She shuffled behind Hawkeye and followed him across the road to the fast food place. The air here wasn't as clean or crisp as where she lived, but she breathed it in gratefully anyway.

They came around the side of the building, but before they could reach the doors, Sutton felt a hand at her elbow and she was suddenly being yanked sideways. She let out a started yelp as she was swung back out of sight and into shadows.

"Hey!"

_Why did everyone think they could just pull her around like some doll?_

She tried to push him away but even though Hawkeye wasn't the largest on the team, he was still bigger than she was. Pressed up against vinyl siding and cornered by a Jeremy Renner doppelganger, Sutton suddenly missed Vicki immensely.

_She would love to trade places with me right now and I'd rather be in Australia._

Clint's face was stoic verging on grumpy, so his normal resting face. Sutton tried to fidget away, but he kept her in place and burned her with his gaze. He wouldn't let her break eye contact.

"You gotta tell me what's going on, kid."

Sutton floundered and fluttered and tried to disappear into the siding.

"What are you talking about, I'm just trying to get us food, I'm hungry."

She quickly snapped her mouth closed before she could rattle off several more excuses. Clint's eyes hardened even as he relaxed his stance.

"You can't let him do that," he said softly. "You can't let him control you."

Six words. That's all it was. And yet, she was blinking furiously and trying to maintain even breathing.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she tried again. "Please."

"We can't help you, kid, if you don't tell us what's going on."

It was like a slap in the face, her own words twisted and coming back to bite her, and Sutton bristled.

" _Nothing is going on,_ stop interrogating me!"

" _Please._ I've preformed a couple interrogations. I've _been on the receiving end of_ a couple interrogations. What I'm doing is asking _extremely_ nicely. If Loki is up to something, you owe it to us to tell us."

"I don't owe you anything! I've _given_ you guys _everything!_ My life!"

Clint was calm enough for the both of them and it only enraged Sutton further. How dare he come and demand something from her! How dare he finally ask what was going on when she couldn't say anything!

"Is he threatening your family," he asked lowly. "We can _help_ you, Sutton."

"You and Natasha make a cute couple," she said. "I've always liked you two together. Honestly, I have."

"Don't do that."

"I'm still hungry, you know. They're going to wonder what's taking us so long and Thor might try to break open a vending machine if we don't hurry."

"So it is your family, then. What is his plan? Why does it involve you?"

"Please," she begged. "Please don't make me do this."

" _Sutton."_

She wasn't even going to deny it anymore because he'd already gotten the idea in his head and nothing she said was going to convince him otherwise. But she certainly wasn't going to actually say anything either. Not when Loki was so close and they still had an undetermined amount of time in her dimension.

_"He'll know,"_ she hissed at him through her teeth.

"Not if you don't say anything."

"I think it's already been made quite clear how well I am able to hide things from others."

"He can't read your mind, Sutton. We need to know."

She didn't say anything then and just settled for staring past him into the darkness. Because he could. He could get into her mind and...

_Oh. Oh gosh._

She was struck with a sudden horror and almost collapsed on to the ground. He could get into her mind and it was _all her fault._ Her heart felt like it was going to explode into tiny fragments and stick in her chest. She had _believed_ that his doubles were tangible and he had seemed delighted at that decision. And what was it he'd said the first time he'd shown up in her head?

_'You give me more credit than you realize'?_

And how many forums and fan-made stories had she come across where people had given him various abilities that the movie hadn't strictly stated he had? She couldn't even convince herself not to believe it now because it had already happened. He'd been in her head. That idea couldn't go away.

She was going to ruin them all if she kept this up.

The only things keeping her up right now were the building's siding and Clint's grip on her shoulders. Her eyes welled up further and Clint eyed her with a certain amount of understanding.

"Please," she begged quietly. "Not here. Not now. I-I can't."

Clint studied her a bit further before he turned away and took a few steps back. All he gave her was a curt nod before getting back on track for the fast food's entrance. Sutton breathed in a shuddery breath of relief.

"But Sutton," he called over his shoulder. She looked up from her trance at the ground and wiped at her eyes. "This isn't over. It has to be sooner rather than later."

She gave him a nod in return and moved to follow him.

No, nothing was over yet. No one was through with her and now even sleep would be lost to her tonight.


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The chapter where everyone is tired.

It was morning by the time the away team returned from the lab. Sutton knew this because she was still awake. Granted, she was slumped against the headboard and practically drooling due to exhaustion, but she was still technically awake. She blinked lethargically at the door as it creaked open and they all filed in, looking a tad exhausted themselves. Sutton clicked her tongue sluggishly, but otherwise didn't move.

"Breaking curfew, you guys," she slurred.

They looked surprised to see her up. Probably because Sutton always took an opportunity to sleep, as evidenced by her earlier nap, and because she was obviously only hanging onto consciousness by a thread.

"Why are you still up," Bruce asked quietly. The rest of the room was quiet. Loki appeared to be sleeping, though he was twitching uncomfortably; Thor  _was_  sleeping, and soundly. His snores were quite obvious and just as commanding as he could be. Sutton knew Clint was awake as well because he would never leave them so vulnerable when Loki was still here, unchained, and the government was after them. He had said nothing to her about her refusal to sleep.

"Not tired," she told Bruce.

Tony harrumphed in disbelief and Natasha's gaze shot to where Sutton knew Clint lay at the end of the bed. She didn't see what sort of look they exchanged, but she curled further into herself anyway. They could communicate through their eyes alone, she knew that, and she did not want them discussing her.

"Well," suggested Steve, "how about you just try. You-you look kind of...sleepy."

"No," she sighed. "I'm good."

Clint stood up from the bed suddenly and exited through the front door. Natasha followed and closed the door behind them. Sutton groaned aloud.

"No," she complained, drawing out the  _'o'_. Through a blurry haze, she could see the faces of her comrades furrow in confusion at her whining. " _They're_  going to die and then  _I'm_  going to die and then we're all going to  _dieeee_."

"What are you talking about," Tony scoffed.

But Sutton just began to bawl. It wasn't terribly loud cries, because she was sucking and choking back the majority of the hysteria, but her eyes were instantly hot and nose running. The people at the entrance of the room froze in a sudden horror that grips an unsuspecting bystander to an emotional meltdown.

"Uh, hey, don't do that," Tony said. "Stop."

" _Tony_ ," Steve admonished.

In the early dawn of morning Sutton was vulnerable to lowered barriers and practically no boundaries. The fact that she was melting in front of her idols didn't even phase her. One higher wail escaped her lips and it served to stir the Asgardians; Sutton began trying to hiccup back her tears. Before anyone could volunteer to make a move to comfort her, she stumbled off the bed while snatching the pillow with her.

"I-I-I'm just-just," her voice warbled as she inched towards the bathroom. "I'm just g-going to go to s-sleep."

" _Sutton._ " The three men stepped forward as one at her retreat. But Sutton was having none of it. She couldn't let people comfort her, she couldn't be seen like this, and she couldn't let Loki see her like this around other people. Quickly, she darted into the bathroom and locked the door behind her. She ignored the demands that she open up and explain herself, to not lock herself away. Instead she dropped the stolen pillow into the plastic tub and crawled in after it. She allowed herself a few more wails in the tub because she'd explode if she didn't and she was exhausted and if no one could see her then they couldn't hear her either.

But she reigned it back in afterwards, because even in her exhaustion she knew that there would be no use in succumbing to despair. The others outside the door had quieted as her sobs had and Sutton assumed that they left to get some sleep themselves. The tub was both a comfort and a barb to her. On the one hand, it was where she'd experienced the first nightmares that Loki had brought upon her. And yet, on the other, this had been where she'd slept before all this government, world sieging, book writing powers nonsense started. It reminded her of home. It was still not without trepidation that she allowed her eyes to close and her mind to rest. She welcomed the darkness and tried to dive deep enough into it that she'd be untouchable.

By the time Sutton woke up again it was clearly afternoon. The light shining into the small, high bathroom window was testament to that. Her sleep had been blessedly dreamless and that alone made her want to laugh aloud. But her actions from earlier came back, almost blindsiding her, and she could only frown while fighting back a blush.

_Well, this wasn't going to be awkward at all._

She stayed in the bathroom to clean herself up and used the time to try and think through her situation. There was no doubt that the entire team knew something was up now. If her meltdown wasn't evidence enough, then Clint was sure to have informed everyone of their conversation. Loki might get suspicious...

_No!_

Sutton shook her head and grit her teeth.

_Don't give him anymore credit._

She thought back to Thor's film and Loki's vulnerability there. She remembered how he was beaten by the Avengers. He wasn't always one step ahead. She sighed and relaxed her shoulders and truly believed it. He wasn't all-powerful. He could lose the upper-hand.

_But,_ her fingers gripped the sink's edge, all of that would depend on her and what she did with what she knew. To not tell the Avengers Loki's plan would be tantamount to betrayal. Even if she could claim being threatened and manipulated, in her heart she knew she would live with guilt for the rest of her life. Sutton squared her shoulders and stared into her own eyes in the bathroom mirror.

_They had to know._

She bit her bottom lip harshly. Even- _even_  if it meant risking the people she loved. Her mind was suddenly in turmoil once again. Is that what they would really want? Would her mom, her family, her friends, really be proud of her for risking it all on a fictional world? For made up lives?

_No._

She kneaded briskly at her eyes.

They were still real people with real lives. Hadn't her mother taught her that all life was sacred? They were just simply a different kind of life. They still mattered. And even more, they mattered to  _her_.

She would defend the defenders, she decided. And if Loki laid one perfect piano-playing finger on anyone, she would  _end_  him. She didn't care what it took. If she had to go through hypnosis or electroshock therapy to believe that he was weak, or had his magic taken away, or was even a cat, she'd make sure it happened.

A fire was beginning to lick its way from her bone marrow out to her veins to dance under her skin. If she was powerful enough for Loki to want to use, then she could be powerful enough to turn it against him. She knew what she had to do now, even if she really, really didn't like it. In fact, the idea almost killed the fire that had started inside her. But it was kept alive only by the knowledge that she had control over this decision. It was hers and it was the  _right_  thing and they couldn't take that from her.

Finally feeling mentally, if not totally emotionally, prepared, she stepped out of the bathroom to face everyone.

Everyone in this room was awake save for Tony who was laying, mouth gaping open, sprawled out on one of the beds. Sutton smirked at the sight. And then she felt eyes on her. Thor and Loki were still on this side along with Natasha. She assumed the other three guys had moved over to the next room. Sutton moved over and sat next to Natasha, giving her a quick nod.

"Good morning, or, I mean, probably afternoon now."

Natasha gave her a nod back.

"Hey. We'll be leaving soon," she said. "Be ready."

"Hold on," said Sutton sarcastically. "Let me gather all of that one thing I own." She looked down at herself and gave a shrug of her shoulders. "Welp, all done!"

She shot Natasha a smarmy grin and was rewarded with an eye roll and faint traces of amusement.

"Glad to see you're efficient." The spy looked down at Sutton's thoroughly worn outfit and made a decision. "We'll get you a change of clothes on the way to the next hotel. I'm pretty sure you've been wearing that for three days."

"Oh, thank you," Sutton gushed instantly sincere. "You have no idea how disgusting I feel."

"I once spent an entire week in a sewer system doing surveillance on a  _literally_  underground criminal network."

"Ok, so maybe you do."

Sutton was surprised to find that Natasha didn't look at all like Clint had told her of Loki's plotting and Sutton's involvement. Not that she expected her to come out and say,

_'Hey, heard you had a breakdown and are being threatened with bodily harm to your loved ones!'_

But still, the woman wasn't even flashing her little knowing looks or anything. She was good.

"Afternoon, Thor," Sutton called out. "Sleep well?"  
Thor nodded cordially.

"I did, Lady Sutton." She considered insisting that he call her by just her first name, but figured it would be pointless. Besides, she kind of liked being referred to as a lady. "And yourself?"

Sutton nodded too quickly.

"Yup! Great!"

And it wasn't totally a lie. When she finally had slept it had been dreamless and Loki-less, which counted as great. It hadn't even bothered her that the tub was slightly damp or that she'd been curled up on unforgiving plastic. Thor smiled at her politely.

"I am glad," he said.

She was about to attempt casual conversation and ask Thor why his dad rode an eight-legged horse, or where it even came from, when Natasha stood up and started to head towards the other room.

"Wake up Stark, would you," she tossed over her shoulder. "We'll be on the move soon and we wouldn't want him to be too cranky."

"Why me," Sutton complained. "He'll probably try to whack me or something and I don't have good reflexes like you."

Natasha paused at the door leading to the other room and looked back at her.

"As part of this team, you have to pull your own weight."

Sutton snapped to attention, her eyes suddenly bright.

"Wait. You all consider me part of the team? But, I'm not a-a  _superhero_."

Natasha gave her a small smile.

"Well, you're doing pretty well so far."

Sutton couldn't help herself from grinning widely.

"Consider him woken up!"  
Natasha grinned back before dipping her head and disappearing into the opposite room. From the corner of her eye Sutton could see Loki shooting a nasty glare at the spy, but chose to ignore him. Now, about Tony. She blew some air out her nose as she considered her options.

_He wanted to call her Hermione? Fine._

Sutton kneeled down until she was level with Tony's sleeping face and took a deep breath.

"WINGARDIUM LEVI-O-SA!"

Tony spasmed while letting out a cry of surprise, his body flying off the bed as he tangled himself up in the sheets, before he fell off the other side onto the floor. Sutton  _tsked_  at herself.

"And that's why I never got my Hogwarts letter," she sighed. "Not even a full three inches in the air."

Tony practically growled from somewhere on the other side of the bed.

"Yeah, well I'm about to  _Avada Kedavra_  your a-"

"Natasha told me to!"

Tony finally pulled himself over the edge of the bed and glowered at her.

"I've been sober way too long," he muttered.

"Yes," prodded Sutton. "Let's joke about being an alcoholic. It's so funny."

"I would never joke about that. I take it very seriously."

Sutton rolled her eyes and caught the sad smile that Thor was giving them.

"You ok," she asked him.

Thor looked pulled from his thoughts as he nodded at her.

"I am fine," he said. "I am just reminded of," his gaze flickered over at Loki quickly, "before."

Sutton's lips thinned and she purposefully didn't look at his brother. One glance at him and maybe all her bravery and resolve would dissipate. She couldn't allow that to happen, especially if they counted her part of the team! It also felt like an act of defiance on her part and she reveled in it. She wished she could tell Thor she understood, but she couldn't. Not really. So she remained quiet.

The topic of discussion was diverted to the away team's scavenger hunt for science the previous night and Tony vaguely shared their progress.

"We found some stuff, a lot better than your old toaster. There's just a few different machines we need to use and we can't move stuff around or they'll notice."

"We have all the technology you'll need in this world to pull this off?"

Tony squinted one eye and rocked his head side to side.

"I might need to make a  _few_  modifications."

"Well, I know you can do it," Sutton said assuredly. "When Jarvis said that new element you found couldn't be synthesized, you just did it anyway."

Tony just gave her a look that said he was surprised at her praise once again.

" _Enabling,_ " he reminded her.

"Just be ready," Sutton scoffed. "Natasha will kick your butt if you delay us when it's time to leave."

They left shortly after. Sutton wondered how many hotels they would go through before they finished the device to send them home. She would probably never know, because she had to execute her "Save the Avenger's World" plan shortly. The first opportunity she had where Loki wasn't present, she would execute phase one. There were really only two phases, so it wasn't difficult to remember or understand. Phase one consisted of breaking off from the group without Loki noticing. Phase two was call the police and wait for a S.W.A.T. team to show up.

Yeah. It really wasn't a great plan. It was going to end so badly for her and her stomach knotted at the idea. But it was all she had. The longer she spent with the group, the more the likelihood grew of Loki being able to enact his evil plot. They would be safer if she was somewhere Loki couldn't reach her. And he couldn't reach her if she was in custody, right?

But he'd turned invisible and entered a secure S.H.I.E.L.D operation.

No! This was different.  _Somehow._  She had to be safe there.

If there was any real signs during the day that the team did know about Loki's scheming, it was the fact that no minute of Sutton's time was spent alone or even next to him. They didn't make it completely obvious, but she eventually noticed. There was always at least one person as a barricade between them and for that her heart swelled. Even if it had nothing to do with her and everything to do with saving their own earth, she'd still consider it a kindness on their part. So, when they finally reached a new hotel, secured rooms, and then left for the lab that evening and took her along, she wasn't too surprised.

Clint led the team up this time and Sutton was excited to see just what a laboratory break in consisted of. She decided that since she finally had gotten that distance from Loki that she needed, she'd say her good-byes to the four with her tonight and hope they passed it along.

Clint drove the van up the mountain and parked it a ways away from the front gate. Sutton guessed that it was mostly out of sight and that there were no cameras in this vicinity for guards to notice it on. He led them around the side of the perimeter silently and Sutton watched as he pulled a blank white plastic card with one black stripe, badge sized, from one of his pockets and moved towards an entrance gate. He swiped the card on the reader and then quickly stepped through the turnstile. Without a word, he tossed the key back and Bruce went through next. The turnstile once again clicked and let him through. Tony prodded at Sutton's back and pushed her forward.

"Come on," he said lowly. "You're next. Can't have you holding everyone up."

Sutton would have replied with snark but she was too thrilled at the idea of being like a real spy and sneaking into the labs. She slid through the turnstile like the first two and stood near Bruce and Clint.

"How does that card work," she asked. "And why does it let the same person in a million times?"

Tony and Steve passed through quickly and Clint answered shortly as they walked.

"It's not the same person. The card randomly pulls up one of the the authorized personnel's access information so it's never the same twice. It's able to pull the information through the key-reader itself."

"That is so awesome!"

" _Shhh_ ," hushed Clint. "I know. What did you expect from two of S.H.I.E.L.D's top agents?"  
"Nothing less," she agreed. "Though I'm still not sure how you're able to pull all this off without your usual resources."

"We adapt quickly. And your world has plenty of its own resources. Now, come on."

They all followed Clint to one of the building's entrances and used the card again to get in. From there Tony and Bruce directed Clint to the specific room they needed.

"This time I want to work with the particle accelerator."

"And I can start on the mainframe that will stabilize the bio-electric frequencies," added Bruce while rolling up his sleeves.

Sutton and Steve looked to each other and shrugged in sync.

Finally, they entered a large room filled with all sorts of things that Sutton would be told not to touch. She decided to sit and watch for no more than twenty minutes. Then she would get up and vamoose out of there and into what might as well be oblivion. Her palms were already starting to sweat.

Steve and she both found a couple of chairs to settle into, since Steve was there in case they needed another bouncer, and Clint perched himself at a level where he could keep an eye on them as well as the exits and entrances to the room. The two brains were in full on "make-science-theory-into-science-fact" mode and Sutton watched them lazily. It was not the same atmosphere that they'd had on the helicarrier. Now they were more focused, it seemed, and adamant about their task. Sutton didn't blame them. How long had they been here? Long enough for the bruises to heal at least. But would it be any time at all on their earth? Obviously Sutton's world was very much ahead of theirs. Did their timeframes even have to have a correlation?

_Not that it mattered,_  she reminded herself.

She'd never find out and she could only hope that the authorities would allow her to watch movies in order to keep tabs on them, if the movies even applied anymore, in her future cell.

The twenty minutes passed by much quicker than Sutton had hoped. But, she stood up with resolve and dusted off her jeans. Her movements caught the attention of Steve and he looked at her curiously. She didn't even have to glance up to know that Clint was watching.

"Where are you going," asked Steve as she took a couple hesitant steps forward. Sutton paused and took a deep breath.

"I want to say good-bye," she said. Tony opened his mouth to say something but she beat him to the punch. "I've decided that it would be safer for all of you if I just left. So," she pressed her lips tightly together for a brief moment. "Good-bye. I'll really miss all of you. Thank you so much for everything."

"What," balked Tony in disbelief. "Leave just to be re-apprehended by the feds?"

Sutton stiffened.

"Yes."

Clint slid down from his vantage point and stormed towards the group.

"Do you really believe that will protect you from him?"

Sutton flinched at the  _'b'_  word and took a step back from his imposing figure.

"I'm trying extremely hard to, but you're not really helping right now."

"You're not going anywhere," Clint deadpanned. "Sit down. I think it's time for that talk."

He unceremoniously pushed her back in her chair and stood with arms crossed.

"Hey!" Sutton fumed from her now seated position. "You are not the boss of me and you can't just tell me what to do!"

"When it involves the safety of my planet, I can," Clint snapped back. "Now, we're miles away from the hotel. Spill."

Sutton felt the heat rise up around her face as every eye was on her. She adjusted her position in the chair a few times without making eye contact.

"Are you one of us, or not?" Clint was intent on hammering the idea home and Sutton felt its full impact. She kept quiet a few moments more.

"He said he'd kill them," she finally confessed quietly. The room was silent and it almost seemed to echo against the far walls. "And I've already decided I would tell you anyway, if I couldn't leave, because it's the  _right_  thing. But, please, it's just- I've never had to make a decision like this before."

She twiddled with her hands some more awkwardly, building up the nerve to say what needed to be said.

"I would just really like them to  _not_ die, but I know-I know that this is a couple of people versus billions. And I can't be that selfish so..." She laughed without humor and shook her head. "I'm stalling. Sorry."

Steve actually did put a hand on her shoulder this time and it was almost enough to make her jump out of her chair. But it was warm and strong and reaffirming and it helped heat up the coldness that had been creeping up on her fire.

"It's ok," he said. "Take your time."

"Thanks, but I really can't. The longer I take, the more of an opportunity  _he_  has." With that she straightened in her seat and fixed her gaze resolutely. " _Ok_. Loki is planning on using me to take over your world."

No one looked like that brought them any sudden enlightenment, which she knew it wouldn't, so she elaborated.

"He said that there are people from  _my_  world who can create new worlds through writing and powered by belief. He thinks that I am one of those people and, and he might be right."

And so she explained it to them as best she could, everything she understood and knew, and hoped to God that Loki would never find out about this moment. The men listened intently to her story, not even Tony interrupted, and she confessed everything with her head bowed. In the end, she felt neither relief or dread after her speech, just a numb resignation that she could not control whatever happened next.

"Well," said Bruce after a length of silence. "That is..."

He trailed off and blinked aggressively simultaneously hunching his shoulders inwards. His eyes flashed a violent green. Sutton felt her throat tighten as her breath caught and her hand snapped out to land on his shoulder.

"Hey, don't get upset. Nothings happened yet."

The others noticed her actions and Bruce's hunched posture causing Clint and Steve to stiffen. Clint's hand twitched by his side.

"He's been threatening you and planning to try and destroy our world a second time," Bruce seethed. "That's not nothing." He took several deep breaths and was obviously working to control his temper. His body was beginning to tremble and alarm bells were going off in Sutton's head. Mostly alarm bells that said,

_He is about to go Hulk and you are sitting six inches away from him._

"Maybe the Big Guy  _should_ pay Green, Gold, and Ghastly another visit," Tony mused.

"Tony!" Steve did not agree with the idea.

"What? He obviously could use another pounding."

It was not a good time for things to escalate. Especially not when they were in a room filled with very breakable equipment that they needed. Sutton didn't think about what she was doing and just brushed back Bruce's hair gently.

"Don't get angry yet," she said. "I know you can control it just fine."

The reaction was instant. Bruce's shoulders suddenly relaxed and he paused before looking up at her with confused brown eyes. His mouth opened and closed a few times without any sound coming out. Clint and Steve eyed the interaction with something akin to wonder. Tony sighed, obviously not concerned with the whole ordeal, and shook his head while giving her a pat on the knee.

"Looks like you can't catch a break, Small Fry. Get stuck with babysitting duty, the 'rents are trying to ground ya, and now you have a crazy ex after you."

Sutton groaned, the moment ruined, and rubbed at her temples.

"Oh, please don't say that. Never, never."

"He's going to wait until he has a way home," Clint said. "You're ok until Tony and Bruce get this machine up and running."

"No," she disagreed. "He can get in my head, remember?" She shuddered at her own reminder and looked away ashamed. "I'm such an idiot."

"Hey," Steve admonished gently. "You're not. You've just gotten tangled up in something that no one should ever have to be involved in."

"Come on," Tony drawled. He stood up quickly and spread his arms out in display. "All you have to do is  _believe_ that we're better than he is, right? And I don't think that should really be that hard. I mean, look at us." He gestured to himself and raised his eyebrows suggestively.

Sutton giggled lightly.

"No, I guess not," she relented. "Six against one is decent enough."

" _Seven,_ " corrected Steve, and Clint nodded.

Sutton smiled up at them and fought back stupid tears.

"Stop being so great and just trying to flatter me. I don't need to be coddled, you know."

Tony squinted.

" _Ehhh._ "

Clint reached back behind him and made sure that all his arrows were still in place despite haven't not used them the whole evening.

"Alright. We'll have to put all this on hold for tonight. You guys really do need to get that machine done and we're wasting moonlight."

Sutton could only guess how many times the key reader could register late night visitors without it alerting someone. Or how long they could hop from hotel to hotel before the government caught up. Or how long it would take Loki to figure o-

Nope!

She sighed and allowed herself to get more comfortable in the seat as the activity returned to its previous state. Her stomach didn't feel so bad anymore. She'd  _tried_ to leave, but they were making her stay. And maybe leaving wouldn't have been the right decision anyway, but she'd put up an effort to be noble so it counted. There was still the threat and still the chance for things to go wrong, but now that people knew, she didn't feel so alone. Maybe she should have done this sooner.

But, right now she could go for some major ice cream and internet time. Or some Netflix. She'd even settle for a Sudoku puzzle. Because right now she was just exasperated with thinking and worrying and even ten minutes of something mindless would be a blessing. She tried to daydream instead of all the different universes that were probably real based off this system.

Definitely Harry Potter. Star Wars and Star Trek for sure. Dracula too, maybe, given how long it'd been around. Oh gosh,  _not Twilight_. She sneered to herself and scraped her tongue over the roof of her mouth as if it had a bad taste. Oh, the things she could do to mess with those characters if she only knew how.

It was once again morning by the time they headed back; maddeningly early actually. Sutton had caught an hour or two of light sleep, but was for the most part drained of any life once again. She was able to keep her act together this time though as she interacted with people. She was quite proud of herself for that. The idea of going back to the hotel where Loki was located did frighten her a bit. She tried to tell herself that it didn't, but she couldn't help thinking that one look at her face and he'd just know. But she shook off her fears as best she could and kept her face impassive. They were all a step ahead of him now. He just didn't know it. Sutton let that thought simmer under her skin and tried no to grin to herself.

Back at the hotel, Sutton went straight to bed. She didn't pass go or collect two-hundred dollars. She just walked up to the bed Natasha was sitting on and collapsed face first onto one side.

"I don't blame you," Natasha said lowly. "They're all a pain in the neck."

Sutton let out a muffled grunt, her face buried in a pillow.

_"A bunch of super babies_ ," she mumbled still not moving.  _"But really pretty ones."_

"I'll pretend I didn't hear that."

After that Natasha remained silent and Sutton let sleep take her.


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dreaming, Driving and Fist Fights.

A force yanked her by her hair violently back. Sutton let out a shrill cry and opened her eyes. It was red. Everything was red. She cried out again as she was thrown back and away. She knew she was moving, could feel the force, but there was nothing to gauge herself against. It was just red. All red. No,  _wait._  A line of green. Loki emerged against a curtain of blood red as he stalked toward her prone form.

" _You dare,_ " he seethed. His eyes were wild and his teeth bared. "What have you told them?"

Sutton scrambled to her feet and kept a good distance between them.

"Back off," she shouted. "Do  _not_ mess with me, Loki  _Odinson_!"

Loki ignored what he considered feeble empty threats and continued towards her. Sutton in turn continued to back into the red. Where was the black? Why red? She didn't like it. She felt somehow more isolated. It felt almost like she was starting to sweat. Heat rose up from beneath her and wrapped around her legs, climbing up her torso to settle in her hair. Loki still moved forward, an icy pillar coated in malice and...and...was that  _fear_ in his eyes?

"I didn't bring up anything," she told him. "So you better just calm down!"

"Do you believe me a fool," he hissed. "Did you believe that I would not notice anything?  _I_ am the trickster! And I know an  _attempt_  at subtly when I see one!"

They were both frayed, sparking wires just waiting to connect. Sutton was doing her best to maintain a safe distance but she could feel her nails curling towards her palms. She felt wild herself and sick to death of feeling helpless and afraid. Couldn't she just get over it already? Couldn't she just be brave and stop falling onto this roller coaster of erratic emotions?

She bent slightly at the knees, elbows up, as Loki insisted on approaching her.

"Are you looking to embarrass yourself at another attempt of physical prowess," Loki mocked. "Such an athlete, you are. Well, nothing you do can save them now. I believe I made you a promise."

Sutton snapped and leapt at him. He caught her easily, but this was her mind.  _Hers, hers, hers!_  And he wasn't allowed to control the parameters of it anymore! She was able to make him stumble back and Loki's face flashed in confusion.

"I  _sympathized_ with you," Sutton shouted. They were suddenly rolling around the red, tumbling over and over. Sutton was spitting and hissing and clawing like the caged animal he'd made her feel like. Her arms and legs lashed out to strike him anywhere she could and he grunted in response. "I  _liked_  you! I was the child of a monster and a monster's child to my mother for the entire first two years of my  _life!_ But you know what?  _I let it go._ I forgave. I got better. And I will  _not_  let you put me back in that place!"

He was starting to gain the upper hand again as Sutton began to pant and gasp for air. It was hot, so,  _so,_ hot. And the red was so bright. Loki ground his teeth as he gripped around her elbows.

"You will regret this," he spat.

Sutton didn't know what she was going to do, because she'd used up almost every drop of energy that her body could hold. She tried to push back as much as her muscles would allow but was quickly losing ground. Her heart thudded a few times faster than it should have. And then a voice drifted over to her from memory.

_A door opens both ways._

Her eyes connected with Loki's and she let her body go limp. He hadn't expected the loss of resistance and she fell into him. As rapidly as she could, Sutton threw her hands up and locked them onto either side of Loki's head. He almost got a cry of anger out before Sutton closed her eyes.

The change was drastic and instantaneous. It was dark, but not the blackness she knew from her own mind. There were pinpricks of light scattered above her. There was actually ground. It was rocky, dusty, and filled with craters. Another glance and she knew that there was no atmosphere. She should be dead, but she was breathing just fine. She took in a lungful and it was then that everything hit her. She _felt_  everything _._

_Pain! Pain, pain, pain, pain!_

Pain from the heat. So hot. Purposefully hot in a place that was supposed to be cold. Too, too hot for someone like her. Pain from falling and crashing and the bruises and cuts. Pain from loneliness and hurt and perceived segregation. Sutton cried out and fell to her knees on the rough ground beneath her. It was years and years and no time at all of pain and hurt and poisonous slithering words. One ragged breath escaped her and then she sucked in air that wasn't there. Another lungful and another before she was able to think about standing again.

And then it almost didn't matter because she practically lost all the air again when she looked up. A large, creviced face was sneering down at her. A purple skinned behemoth who she knew she couldn't cross. A toe out of line meant death. And, why,  _why, why_  did she have to land  _here_  of all places? Why did she think she could handle this all on her own?

The being grinned at her without humor and bared large blunt, dull teeth. The false smile cracked the tough skin around his face and made her gut churn. His voice,  _oh then his voice_. He spoke and it shook her bones and made her skin curdle.

"You think you can run. You think you can  _hide_."

She  _wanted_  to run and hide and cry and never be found. She wanted to fight and win and destroy him! She wanted to be free and not trapped in this debt she owed. But her feet were welded to the rock beneath her and she could only cower. The hate she felt for the purple behemoth knew no bounds. It sang under her skin and set her blood on fire and kept itself collared around her heart.

"You must think yourself so clever."

Sutton suddenly spun around in response and remembered who she was and who she wasn't. Thanos' face above them faded slowly away, chuckling, and she still felt uneasy. She was still trembling even though the warning had not been meant for her. She turned her back on him again to avoid his face.

"Not so fun when someone does it to you, is it," she tried to comment off-handedly. She could feel Loki's glower hot on the back of her neck but chose to ignore him for the cold beauty of space. The open, atmosphere free sky let her breathe and she took a moment to gather herself.

"You're so selfish, you don't even realize how blessed you were," she continued before he could speak. A spiral galaxy floated in the distance, adorned in rich blues and purples, and it almost seemed close enough to touch. Stars twinkled from memory, oblivious to the chaos below them. "You were rescued from death as a baby, raised as a royal son, have a family that loves you, are a powerful sorcerer, and can travel the cosmos at will. I'm not trying to say that your emotions aren't validated. If I found out my dad was Osama Bin Laden, or something, I'd be upset too, but that doesn't define who  _you_ are. I learned that. And," she swallowed thickly, "and I think you certainly need friends right now."

Loki was silent behind her, letting the quiet grow thick with static.

"Are you finished with your sentimental drivel," he finally asked. But his voice was slightly hoarse. "This still changes nothing."

Sutton sighed and finally turned around decisively. He needed to see that she was perfectly honest and completely serious about what she said next.

"Then you should know this. I made myself a promise too. I may have sympathized with you before, but if you hurt anyone I care about, you  _will_  regret it. I will do  _everything_  in this power you discovered I have to make sure you pay for whatever crimes you commit."

Sutton gave him a level gaze. Loki's lips pressed together and she cut in, still on the high of bravery she'd experienced earlier. Whether it was also stupid or not was still to be seen.

"And if you tell me ' _bold_ ' one more time I swear I will take my shoe and shove it down your throat!"

Loki's eyes iced over and his skin tinted a faint blue. He was about to respond, and quite nastily by the looks of it, when the astroid they currently stood on shook harshly. Sutton stumbled over her own feet and looked up in surprise.

"What's going-"

The astroid jolted again and Sutton tumbled off the side.

"- _up._ Small Fry! You gotta wake up!"

Bright light greeted her and Sutton groaned as she slowly sat up. It looked like she had a full audience.

"What," she grumbled. She felt sore and achey and a bit grumpy that Tony was staring at her like she'd just come back from the dead.

"You wouldn't wake up," he griped. "We thought you'd gone zombie on us or something."

Sutton raised a brow and studied him unamused.

"I'm a deep sleeper, remember?"

"Not like that."

Her eyes did a loop in their sockets and she pulled her arms from under the covers to rub the crust from her dry lids. A collective gasp suddenly rang across the room, some cursing too, and Sutton froze with her hands halfway to her face. The facial expressions around the room ranged from confused and concerned to downright murderous. She followed the path of their eyes down to her own arms and gasped herself. Dark black bruises mottled her skin, contrasting like ink on parchment. She twisted her arms over to study the other side in sick fascination.

"Oh," she murmured.

Bruce moved forward to pull one of her arms out straight in order to inspect it. There were several finger shaped markings on her upper arms and Bruce's eyes flashed green before he took a deep breath and they quickly returned to brown.

"Did he do this?"

Loki was the only one absent from this room, but Sutton lowered her voice anyway.

"Uh, I'm fine."

But she touched the finger on her free hand to the tip of her nose and tapped twice.

"Sometimes my dreams get a little hands on," she explained. "But I'm getting better about controlling that."

Thor, despite popular depiction, was not stupid. He knew exactly what she was implying and he was furious. His mouth was pulled down harshly and his eyes turned a stormy blue. She saw his jaw clench beneath his beard. Sutton became alarmed when he picked up his hammer and began to spin it in his hand.

" _Hey, hey, hey, hey!_  Ex-nay on the hammer-ay! No fighting!"

Thor looked down at her, jaw firm and eyes resolute.

"My brother has lain hands on a woman," he said. "We were not raised so poorly, and there are consequences for such actions."

"Thor! Now is just not the best-!"

But he had already practically flown to the adjoining room and out of reach or reason. Sutton's free hand was still reaching as if to stop him when she heard a  _'thwip, thwip, thwip'_ from his hammer then a grunt followed by a monstrous crash.

"Oh no."

Bruce pulled her up by the unmarred skin on her wrist and moved her back behind him.

"I think it's time to go," he said.

"Agreed," concurred Tony.

They gathered what little they'd collected in their time on the road and dumped it all in the van in a matter of seconds.

Even though Bruce still had a hand on her shoulder stopping her from entering the fray of battle, Sutton managed to peer around the corner at the loud brawl now occurring. When she did, she really wished she'd hadn't. Half of the other room was just... _gone._  The wall had shattered and crumbled into a messy heap and there was drywall and cracked laminate strewn hazardously about. Her hands flew up to cover up her mouth as she tried to stifle back a choking sound.

The two boldly colored figures were still duking it out in the rubble. Thor was pummeling Loki with heavy hammering punches which his brother would attempt to block and strike between. Loki was supposedly weaponless, they'd confiscated his daggers in the first two days of their arrival, and he aimed for any weak spot Thor left available. Their differences in fighting styles could not have been more obvious. Thor was mighty with brute force on his side; agility too. When he hit you, you knew it and he followed all his swings through. But where he was rock, Loki was water. He was forceful and overwhelming if need be, but flexible enough to pull back and dive or deflect then find your weakness.

And they still weren't slowing down.

Thor grabbed Loki by his buttoned shirt and lifted him off the ground before slamming him against one wall that hadn't completely crumbled yet. It was nonexistent now. Loki grit his teeth and used all the force he could muster to knock Thor's wrist away. He then twisted his body away and swept Thor's feet out from under him, but the wielder of thunder didn't stay down long. He jumped back up and football tackled his brother driving him into the debris.

Loki was looking a bit battered, caught off-guard by Thor's sudden fury. But Thor had a cut lip as well and, well, actually, that was it. Sutton tried to fight back a smug grin. It was like watching your favorite sports team not only win, but win by a landslide. It just made the victory that much sweeter.

Thor delivered another blow directly to Loki's sternum as he hadn't managed to dodge it in time. Loki flew back several feet and out of what was left of the hotel room.

"You would bring such dishonor on yourself and your people? Our  _mother_?"

Sutton flinched back at Thor's voice, but continued to watch. The rest of the team was still behind her. All of them knew it would be best to break up the fight now, but no one moved forward.

Loki scrambled to his feet and sneered.

" _Your_ people, not mine. They  _never_  accepted me! And  _you accuse me?_  You who would have slain one thousand Jotun women if need be with less care than kicking a dog?"

"And I was wrong!" Thor had enough decency to look chagrined, but would not be cowed by Loki's guilt tactics. "I have changed. I have apologized and mourned and defended you and still you hold onto this hate.  _Why brother?_ "

Loki grit his teeth, but did not bother contradicting Thor again. Instead he sprang up, like a cat, and aimed to strike ruthlessly.

Sutton felt a strong energy pulse behind her, followed by a tearing noise. Something massive leaped over her and she fell back in surprise, landing on Tony.

It was Bruce.  _Well,_  it was the  _Hulk_. He was just as large and green and intimidating as the first time she'd seen him. With a grace that should not have belonged to a being so bulky, he intercepted Loki and pulled him down by one leg.

Loki let out a startled grunt and then was thrown into the floor. The whole foundation shook grandly and Sutton watched with boggled eyes. The Hulk pulled him back up,  _whacked_  him back down another time and then held him upside down and gave him a few good shakes. Then he let Loki dangle at his eye level. Relatively speaking, it was gentler than the first beating he'd gotten from the Hulk, but Loki was still limp in his grasp.

" _No_ ," Hulk ground out. He growled menacingly at the wanna-be god. " _Be good._ "

The Hulk was surprisingly controlled and he set Loki down after it was obvious he wouldn't be causing any more trouble. Then he cast his green eyes on Thor and the group.

" _No fight_ ," he said. " _Leave now_."

"Yeah, what the big guy said," agreed Clint.

Then the Hulk grabbed hold onto what was left of his jeans and shrank back down to Bruce Banner.

"Come on," he stressed. "There's already a crowd forming."

To Sutton's terror, she realized that there was.

They'd probably caused enough noise and destruction to attract the attention of three city blocks, but it hadn't occurred to her that they'd actually be noticed. It had seemed like they'd been in their own bubble this whole time that no one could break through. Not ordinary citizens at least. She felt like she was going into shock.

"Oh gosh; they'll have cell phones," she managed to spit out. "This'll be on the news in five minutes!"

Someone lifted her up and chucked her in to the van to which she squawked indignantly. Thor dragged Loki over and shoved him in the back away from everyone else. His little brother now had more bruises than she did and one eye was a bit swollen. Probably thanks to the Hulk. And even though she knew he deserved it, she couldn't find it in her after it was all over to be happy about it. Despite her recent outburst, Sutton didn't consider herself a violent person. It was against her nature to find joy in other's suffering. So she looked away from Loki's cut and marred face and focused on the scene before them.

Clint expertly drove around the forming crowd and out of the hotel parking lot before traffic cones and police tape could be put up. The people now congregated at the hotel were snapping pictures, recording the destruction, and loudly speculating about the source of the damage. Sutton saw one man mime as if he were dramatically describing a giant stomping about.

"I  _really_  hope you are almost done with that machine," she said. "Because  _you-know-what_ just hit the fan."

Luckily they'd been able to exit from the opposite side of the building and avoided most of the attention, but their van was still getting pointed at as they drove out of sight. Sutton didn't know where they were going, but she hoped it was somewhere the government couldn't find them. She had a feeling they wouldn't be so nice next time they met.

"As if staying under the radar wasn't hard enough," Clint grumbled from the driver's seat.

Natasha reasoned with him.

"Look what we have to deal with."

Clint just grunted in response. Tension was still running high in the car. Bruce was looking down at his normal human hands like he'd just found himself in a new body. Tony shoved the man's shoulder playfully and Bruce grinned genuinely.

"That's what I'm talking about," Tony encouraged. "Oh man, wait 'til Rhodey hears about this!"

Sutton thought that Rhodey might not find everything as amusing as Tony did. Steve spoke up for the first time in awhile. He'd been surprisingly quite through the fight and Sutton had the notion that he hadn't broken up the Thor and Loki fight _because_  of her bruises.

"Ok," he said. "Now we  _really, really_  need a plan. We have civilians now involved and several forms of authority. And we don't have this machine near done."

"Actually, we're closer than you think," Tony cut in. "We've already calibrated the commonality and only need to program everyone's isolated biometric frequencies. Of course, then we'll need to finish retrofitting the atom processor -"

"And we'll need to calculate the energy flow and output dependent on mass and velocity needed to obtain-"

"Yes, yes. Then we'll add in the warp core and punch it."

Sutton did not want to sit through another explanation of their hokey science that somehow worked. It was like listening her mother's husband, Howard, talk about his job, using acronyms that were known only to those with his same experience.

"What do you need," asked Natasha, getting straight to the point.

Tony looked at her as if the answer was obvious.

"The lab," he said flatly. "Without security pouring in would be helpful."

"But we can't stay in this area," added Steve. "They'll know we're here for sure now. It won't be difficult to find us."

"Don't be so sure," Clint leered. "I know a few ways to keep out of sight. As long as there are no more cage matches, that is."

Sutton turned around and explained to Thor.

"That means no more fighting, okay? Or, at least no more throwing him against walls. You guys are practically at Superman strength and can cut through support beams like butter."

"Superman," questioned Steve.

"Oh my gosh, you don't have Superman?"

Thor gave a nod of consent to her command before she could rattle on about the first real superhero she'd come to know as a child.

"How much time do you need?"

Clint took a left down another road that was leading them up and out of the city. Sutton really hoped that they wouldn't have to tough it out in the woods. She was not a good camper.

"Well, realistically speaking," Bruce began to explain.

Sutton tuned Bruce out as she found herself focused on Tony. He was making a weird face like he was really considering something. She watched as his focus cleared and then he reached down to a bulky bag on the car floor and hefted it up onto his lap. He pulled out an odd, clearly modified, device and began to flip switches and turn dials.

"Tony!" Sutton leaned forward alarmed. "I'm pretty sure we didn't have one of those when we started! And that's not my toaster!"  
Tony shrugged without concern.

"So I might have nicked it," he said blasé. "It needed to be upgraded in order to work. Here, hold it."

Bruce stopped explaining how long the process would take and looked suddenly uneasy.

"I'm not sure you-"

"Oh relax," Tony chided. He shot his science partner a look and brought his attention back to the device. The thing was pushed into Sutton's hands and she held it awkwardly. It was once square, she thought, but had been fused and soldered with so many different parts that it was difficult to tell. Luckily, it had two handle-like protrusions on the sides covered in some sort of film with wires going into the main body, and she gripped them from the top. The thing was heavy. There were dials and number displays that Tony made sure he could see and then he pushed one last button and it started to hum.

"Um, Lite-Brite, dude, I don't know if this is such a good idea. It's vibrating. I think it might explode."

Tony clicked his tongue, oblivious to the several worried looks from a few of the car's occupants.

"Chillax, it's supposed to do that."

"Why do I have to hold it?"

"Do you really want me to go into a long explanation about this?"

Sutton sighed.

"No."

"Maybe you should," Bruce suggested. He fidgeted in his seat and looked like he either disapproved of what was going on or thought it should be discussed. Sutton looked at him curiously, but didn't comment.

"Pass it back to Ying and Yang when I give you the go ahead, would you?"

She didn't have to ask who 'Ying and Yang' were, but she did becoming incredibly suspicious as to the fact that they also needed to hold it.

Still, she said nothing and nodded in understanding. The idea that she'd have a part in an upcoming news story kept her in a more subdued mood. That and the fact that any time she saw a flash of the color purple her heart ramped up to uncontrollable speeds. And he hadn't even been talking to her. That was all for Loki.

Maybe that's why he'd been so desperate.

Tony gave her the go ahead a short while later and she managed to shove the device back to Thor who tried to hold it as gently as possible in his large hands. He smiled ruefully at the hackneyed machine.

"Much of Jane's own creations resembled this," he said. Loki rolled his good eye.

"You'll see her again," said Sutton comfortingly. "You're getting another movie."

Tony told her to read off the numbers that the machine registered and,

_I need the decimals too, no rounding up. If you mess this up, kid, I'm not paying you back for anything._

Sutton crossed her eyes petulantly and readjusted herself to face the back of the car and the front panel readout.

Her eyes widened.

Her mouth opened.

And then their van was smashed into from behind.


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A car chase commences.

The car lurched forward and Sutton shrieked as others cursed aloud. She could feel the cheap metal bumper cave in as they were struck a second time. Sutton grasped desperately at the headrest in front of her with both hands. The tires squealed for a moment before Clint crushed the gas pedal beneath his foot and shot them forward and away. The large black SUV behind them revved its engine like an eager predator and gave chase. Sutton saw two more just like it trying to catch up. They may as well have plastered giant logos on the side like S.H.I.E.L.D. did, as subtle as they were.

"We're dead," said Sutton. "We're dead, we're dead, _we're dead_!"

Clint snapped.

" _Shut up_ , I'm trying to drive."

"Loki," Steve twisted back in his seat, his voice in control. "Can you cloak us?"

Loki appeared to be mildly amused by the terrifying turn of events. He gave a breathy chuckle and a quick look around their van as if evaluating it.

"I cannot."  
The captain scowled in disbelief but didn't argue since there wasn't time and the effort would be wasted. Sutton moved to clutch her seatbelt as their van careened through traffic, her eyes wide. She'd never been in a car chase before. One might think it would be kind of fun to rush at illegal speeds with adrenaline pumping in the need to not be caught. But it wasn't. _It was not fun at all_.

The three SUVs grouped up and formed a sort of "v" behind them. Natasha glanced at their formation and frowned.

"Clint," she warned.

"I know, I know."

He tried pumping the gas a few more times, but the vehicle just wasn't meant for this type of speed. Especially not with so many occupants.

The SUV to the right shot forward and began to angle its front end behind their back tire. It felt like Barton hit both feet to the brake pedal before he smashed the sides of their vehicles together. Sutton bit her lip hard and her hair engulfed her face as Newton's First Law took effect.

"Now might be a good time for me to suit up," Tony suggested while eyeing his red and gold 'briefcase'. "Even if it can't access Jarvis, it can still-"

"No!" Sutton interrupted him frantically. She pushed a curtain of hair away from her eyes quickly. "If you pop out in that thing they'll have an air team here faster than you can say _'I am Iron Man'_!"

Tony frowned with one side of his mouth.

"Kind of late to be playing it safe, kid."

Sutton thought it was a bit late to be doing anything really, but hoped they would be able to come up with _something_ helpful.

"Thor," Tony suddenly snapped looking behind him. "Keep a hold of that thing. I still need those readings."

Thor crinkled his brow.

" _Tony_ , do you believe now to be the best moment-"

"Now might be the only moment. _Sutton, the numbers._ Focus on the numbers, Small Fry."

And that's how Sutton found herself engaged in a _freaking science fair project_ in the middle of a high speeds _winner-takes-all_ car chase.

The billionaire-playboy gave a groan as she read the last digit that pertained to Thor.

"Now, pass it to _him_."

The speeds they were going at and the vehicles swarming them made all this feel silly. Her heart was _thump, thump, thumping_ too fast for this. There was a delay in transferring the device as their car tilted left around a dangerously sharp corner and Sutton yelped again.

"This isn't going well," Steve pointed out. He was uneasy as the rest of them, but having been a soldier he was keeping his cool a lot better than Sutton was finding herself doing. Bruce snorted in his exasperated way even though his feet were spread out widely to try and stabilize himself.

"You don't say."

Sutton tried desperately to rapidly read all the numbers that popped up as Loki held the device while he was sneering at it. He wasn't even giving the chase currently happening any consideration. She got the information to Iron Man in record time.

Sutton hastily heaved the machine over the seat and tossed it back to Tony. He grunted and grimaced at her as the heavy block landed in his lap.

_"Thanks."_

But Sutton was paying him no mind. Her eyes were glued to the three encroaching SUVs and their tinted windows. This car's windows weren't tinted. They needed tinted windows too. No one needed to see any of their faces! Sutton was not thrilled about any of this. This wasn't _'Adventures with the Avengers'_ time right now. _Now_ , it was _'I am not going back to prison freak out'_ time.

Still clinging to her seatbelt, she wondered how long they'd last, if maybe there was a helicopter and two armed jets already following them, and why didn't Clint just make their van vanish already! He was a S.H.I.E.L.D agent, dang it! They were suddenly nudged from behind and the car fishtailed wildly across two lanes. Several cars had to swerve to avoid them and there was a commotion of horns and angry faces. Clint's white-knuckled grip on the steering-wheel was the only real sign of any duress from him.

Their vehicle couldn't take too much more abuse. There was no spraying glass, yet, or explosions like in the movies but the rear bumper was pretty decimated. The van was an older model and had already appeared kind of sketchy when they'd first found it as it was.

"Clint," Natasha warned again.

Sutton could hear a sudden thunderous whirring noise and came quite close to wetting herself at the emergence of a black chopper. A local news chopper bobbed excitedly not far behind. She felt like she was going to throw up.

"Yeah. I know," Clint answered unhappily.

"Who then?"  
He considered his friend's vague question as well as he could without crashing the car.

"Kid," he shot back. "Who's the least recognizable out of all of us?"

Sutton was still grasping her seatbelt like it was an anchor and she was made purely of helium. She let out a short nervous bark of laughter.

"Uh, _me_ ," she said sardonically. "I don't know! I depends on who you're talking to! And it's kind of _not important at the moment!"_

But the spies ignored her and continued their conversation.

"Not her."

"Of course not."

" _Might I be of assistance?_ "

Loki's words floated up from the back seat causing Clint's spine to straighten to steel as he glared in the review mirror.

"Absolutely not."

Two SUVs converged brutally on either side of them, almost destroying the rear axle and Sutton screamed. This time there was a spray of glass. Loki raised his voice to be heard over the wind and spinning blades.

"You have little time and I may become whomever I wish. I can distract them long enough for you to make your escape, convince them of her innocence, and return for our departure."

"Nope," Clint clipped. "Don't trust you."

Loki practically growled.

"You needn't trust _me._ Trust that I will do whatever necessary to return to our own plane of existence. _And_...I have come to the realization, as our _guide_ had made clear to me, that perhaps allies would be beneficial to me. Unless you would like to destroy the lives of your counterparts, _you have no choice_."

His face, when Sutton whipped back around to stare at it in shock, was sincere enough to give her pause. He seemed tired and _done_. She felt a hesitant sort of elation warm her toes for a moment. Had she really made a difference?

But she didn't have the frame of mine to consider it because their car was swerving viciously, Natasha was barking a _'go'_ as Steve was giving out an uncomfortable _'I don't know about this'._

And then there was a loud _'BANG'_ that shook the van _,_ a blinding flash of light, and a man who was not Loki jumped out of the suddenly open side door as soon as the van slowed enough. He rolled a bit on the pavement and sent them a vicious glare as the door rolled closed and they sped away.

The man who did not look like Loki was short and thick, with a barrel chest and shaved head. He shook a fist at their car and shouted something obscene. Sutton didn't know how he'd be enough of a distraction to call off the chase until she realized he looked like he had some sort of bulky weapon. Both helicopters swarmed in to get a view of him and on of the SUVs stopped it's pursuit. It looked like he was yelling again and then something shot into the sky and they were engulfed in light and smoke and noise. The two SUVs following them screeched their brakes and were lost in the chaos.

Clint took the next exit and turned them around sharply, doubling them back down a different road. Hopefully they wouldn't expect them to stick around this area. Sutton didn't get to see what happened to Loki.

It was a stunned silence among them as Clint maneuvered the limping van back into the outskirts of the town they'd settled in, and found a slow trafficked parking garage far from the panic and chaos to dump the vehicle in. He and Natasha wiped the van free of prints.

And then they were all walking out and down the street. And it was the mundane hum of city life and no one seemed wise to the fact that life destroying events were transpiring around them. Sutton felt shell-shocked.

It was nice out, at least, but it meant nothing to Sutton who still felt sour and jittery. Her muscles were still convulsing just beneath her skin and her stomach churned. She felt light-headed. It didn't even bother her that the entire team was shuffling around in broad daylight. The news of their car chase obviously hadn't reached these people yet, because no one looked alarmed or even curious about such aggressive government intrusions. Their group _was_ getting a few glances, however, probably due to their larger number of people clumped tightly together and the fact that they looked a bit like they'd been through a tornado.

"What did he mean," Steve finally asked, "about realizing he needs allies?"

Sutton blinked twice to shake herself out of her reverie. Her arms were cradled loosely, miming being crossed across her chest.

"Thanos," she said hollowly. "Loki was in my head and I remembered what Clint said about doors so I turned the tables and got in his. Thanos isn't a forgiving being and Loki failed." She paused, thinking. "You don't think they saw our faces, do you? If my mom sees this she'll just _die._ I already freaked her out when I called before. And I'm sure my work has called about me not being there. Everyone probably thinks I'm dead and it'll _ruin Vicki's vacation_!"

Bruce abruptly crouched down to her eye level and began instructing her on breathing techniques.

"I'm not having a panic attack, dang it!" She protested against the added attention and he looked at her firmly.

"Just do it," he instructed.

She did, trying to hurry up and calm down so she didn't delay everyone. When she'd settled down enough she gave a begrudging nod to Bruce in thanks and the group started on again.

"They probably wouldn't get clear images," Natasha commented. "Especially not of you in the back."

Sutton brushed fingertips over the bruises on her arms.

"Do you think Loki will really convince them that I'm innocent?"

No one said anything. Sutton held onto the faint hope that her invading _his_ thoughts and memories was enough to move him. He wasn't _totally_ heartless, she knew that. But the idea of him alone was still worri-

_Alone._

Sutton crumpled on the pavement. At the solid _thud_ of her jean covered knees scraping across the cement the team jumped to her side. Once again she found herself reduced to the most fragile and useless among them. She couldn't keep her bottom lip from quivering or her eyes from welling up no matter how hard she tried to.

"He-he's _alone_ ," she whispered out. "He promised me he'd do it, and I don't- I don't know if he was lying or not." She turned her wavering face up to the group and paused on each uneasy face. "You don't think he'll actually do it, do you? _Tyrese is only twelve_. He wants to be an engineer. What kid wants to be an engineer nowadays?"

Her voice was starting to border on hysterical and Steve was carefully lifting her up off the sidewalk before they drew anymore attention to themselves. He wrapped a thick arm loosely around her shoulders and pulled her in to shield her a bit from any curious eyes. The team then broke up into sub-groups to avoid appearing like a mass hoard descending on the town limits.

Sutton found herself still paired with Steve as Natasha and Clint went to find another car and Tony, swinging his compact Iron Man suit like a picnic basket, Bruce and Thor branched off to attempt and discuss... _whatever._

"Thank you," she said resignedly while flushing. Her eyes were still watery, but she reminded herself that no one had time to really coddle her now. She'd told them she didn't need it. And she didn't! _Did not!_ "I keep doing this and I thought I was good, but-"

She shook her head and went to cross her arms and hold onto her biceps, but gave a sharp hiss and dropped her arms back down.

Steve eyed her bruises, his face contorting in displeasure before he released her to unzip the hoodie he was wearing and hand it to her.

"Oh, I'm not cold."

"People will notice," he said nodding to her injuries. Sutton realized his point and grabbed the sweater. And she really couldn't help it if she gave it a subtle sniff. "You're being very brave," Steve eventually continued. "You don't have anything to be ashamed of."

Sutton snorted indignantly at the American hero.

" _Right._ Because crying constantly and falling over and freaking out is super brave. You don't have to try to flatter me. I know I'm not good at this at all. I just keep messing things up or slowing people down."

Steve shook his head in disagreement. They both paused at a cross walk, the science bros and Thor had already made it to the other side. The S.H.I.E.L.D agents were out of sight. A woman in a ruffled skirt with a union jack canvas bag walked by, did a double take and then made a high-pitched squealing noise in the back of her throat. Sutton swallowed nervously and then ushered Steve along, jaywalking to get away.

"Pray she's from the internet," Sutton muttered.

"Internet? The computer thing? Why?"  
"Because the chances of her being consumed by feels and having social anxiety will be higher and then she won't be able to tell anyone."

The woman luckily didn't follow them, but she did stand on the edge of the curb looking forlorn and watch them walk away. Sutton could see the woman's fingers dancing across her smart phone screen. She pulled on Steve's elbow and dragged him quicker down the sidewalk.

"Yeah, we should probably pick up the pace."

Sutton hurried them forward until they were down the next block and caught up with the others. They stood waiting on the curb as Bruce explained that the missing two would be around with a car. Sutton told herself that auto theft really was the least of her concerns right now.

When their ride finally did pull up she had to do a double take. This wasn't the van and it definitely wasn't her moderately decent SUV. Sutton's nose flared and crinkled back. Car knowledge escaped her, but in her book this car would be classified as _"shady to the extreme"_. It was a drab green except in the places where sections had been replaced with unmatched junkyard parts. One headlight was severely cracked and she could tell that the seats inside were more than well-worn. The scent of stale cigarettes was potent without even a door having been opened. Her fingers were curling under as her arms pulled away as if she could sink into herself and away from this. Tony pried open the back door with one finger on the handle and groaned.

"At least Rhodey isn't here to see this. I'd never hear the end of it."

Sutton very reluctantly climbed in after everyone else.

"What did you do," she asked once she sat squished between two other people. "Steal a car from a guy with multiple warrants who's also violated parole?"

"Yup," popped Natasha. She looked amused by the situation and was letting a smirk through on her features. "Less likely to have it reported stolen."

Sutton sputtered.

"But how did you k- It's only been twenty-"

She shook her head and just accepted the fact that she'd never know how those two operated. Clint held his fist out to Natasha who rolled her head but bumped it regardless. The car wasn't made for quite this many people, so the back was a bit cramped. Sutton was still trying not to dwell on the fact that she was practically sitting in the laps of Steve and Bruce.

Luckily, this car had excessively tinted windows on all but the front three. So at least they wouldn't be pulled over for not using seat belts properly. Sutton remained sitting stiffly throughout the ride. She couldn't stop thinking about all the people who could be in danger because of her. What was today? Thursday? Tyrese would be getting out of school soon and going to whatever after school sport was in season. Was it baseball or soccer now? She should have gone to more of his games. She should have taken him out to lunch more often; teased him for liking math less. And her mom would either be at her ladies book club or running errands in town. She usually invited Sutton along. Sutton's heart splintered a little bit more at the idea of her phone ringing and ringing and ringing with her mom waiting at the other end. And Howard would be getting off work later only to come home to his despondent wife. She repeated the breathing techniques that Bruce had shown her earlier. As long as her face wasn't in the news and Loki convinced them she was an innocent victim in all this, she could go home and apologize to her mom for two weeks straight. She could greet Vicki when she came home and actually be happy for her like she ought to have been from the start. She could be a braver, better _Sutton 2.0_.

With one last heavy breath, Sutton soothed herself.

_Loki would not hurt her family because then he would have no bargaining chip, right?_

Plus, she'd _threatened him._ And she'd been serious about it. More serious than she'd ever been about anything else in her life. And she could carry it out too, she just knew it. She would have to or he'd just have control of her all over again. And she knew that if he ever got her secure under his thumb, she'd never be able to escape.

Clint drove them up north a ways passed the lab and up into a wooded area. Sutton let out a dejected sigh.

_Camping._

"We won't be able to use that badge again," Clint said as he drove off the main road and on to a gravel path.

"So how will we be getting in?" Steve asked.

"The old-fashioned way."

"Just like Budapest," said Natasha.

Clint sputtered at the wheel.

" _Seriously._ Were we even on the same mission?"

Sutton dove into the distraction provided to her, trying to forget her worries for a second.

"Are we ever going to find out what actually happened there? And by _'we'_ I mostly mean myself."

Clint and Natasha grinned at each other.

"Sorry-"

"-Classified."

Sutton groaned, the only one with any vested interest in the _Budapest mystery_.

"I made myself a level seven S.H.I.E.L.D badge," she tried.

"Congratulations on your amateur photoshop skills."

From the backseat, Sutton half lowered her eyelids and huffed, not amused.

" _Thanks_." Under her breath she mumbled, "it's not like it'd be a big deal if I knew, _jerks_."

Eventually they were completely off any real road. Clint forced the poor excuse of a car out of sight behind some bushes. Sutton wasn't sure if the old thing would be able to manage to get itself out ever again.

She helped unpack what little supplies Clint and Natasha had been able to procure. Again, she had no idea how they managed it, but maybe she gave them a bit more credit than she thought as well. Maybe she'd been effecting all of them, enhancing them even, without realizing it. Maybe that was how Tony and Bruce had almost finished their device so ridiculously fast. It was a daunting thought and she disregarded it to focus on the task at hand.

_Setting up camp._

Sutton frowned as she sat on a log, that was obviously decaying, after all was done. The rest of the team circled around and settled on various surfaces as well. It looked like there was another meeting in order, and Sutton was not disappointed. Clint reminded everyone of the outside layout of the lab with a stick and a simple geometric shape in the dirt.

"Okay," he said, "like I mentioned, we can't use that badge again. It's too dangerous now that they've confirmed we're here and they are going to be watching any point of interest to find out why."

"We'll have to break in," agreed Natasha, "the old fashioned way. There's a pair of fence cutters in the truck and we'll have to enter from a discreet spot. Probably here."

She pointed to a corner of the diagram drawn in the dirt as if it were an accurate, detailed map. Sutton herself wasn't sure which way was the front of the building.

"And are we going to walk the entire way down there," she asked. Her tone was doubtful and unimpressed. She would not be happy to walk through all the sticks and mud that they'd travelled through to get up here in the first place.

"Of course not," said Natasha.

"Tony 'll be taking us," finished Clint.

Tony glanced up at the pair for a beat before understanding dawned on him.

"Oh, come on," he groaned. "I have to give you _all_ a lift?"

Sutton's eyes darted down to his 'briefcase' and she felt a small pang of excitement.

"We get a ride? But not like the plane crew in the trailer, right? Because I don't think I could hold on to someone that tightly."

Tony scoffed at her.

"I don't think so. The logistics for that are totally different. Oh yeah," he told her at noticing her gaping. " _I watched the trailers_. And I think I'm going to try to avoid that whole mess altogether. I'll have a few calls to make about Aldrich when I get back..."

"But you-"

"Could not care less about your little space time continuum, Small Fry. You should have gotten that hint by now."

Sutton pouted on her log. The rest of the team discussed logistics of that night's mission. There was no doubt now that they needed to finish their inter-dimensional-transporter- _whatever_ as soon as inhumanly possible. Not that they had moved at a leisurely pace before, but still.

As dusk grew closer and they waited for the cover of night, someone turned on the van's radio lowly and let it play on a local station. They were spouting off the evening news and Sutton listened attentively, wondering if their car chase would be mentioned. Most of the others were listening as well, as could be seen by Steve's thoughtful frown and Thor's tilted head.

And they _did_ mention them. Not everyone by name obviously, _but oh was it a featured story._

_"Earlier today near highway twenty-four, there was a reported massive, high speeds car chase. Reports say that there were three unmarked police vehicles pursuing a gray 1985 Toyota Townace. The chase ended with an explosion and the apprehension of one of the suspects. Among one of the escaped is a Sutton Regan, who authorities claim is suspected of helping to plot domestic terrorism."_

Sutton paled and gripped the dry wood beneath her fingers. The splinters dove under a few of her nails and stabbed the tender skin and she hissed. The earth was tilting too far to the left.

_"The man authorities have apprehended was said to have cooperated with interrogations and has claimed that Sutton Regan is, in fact, not an assistant in their terrorist organization."_

There was a collective sigh that rang out from everyone in the group. Thor looked relieved and mightily proud. Sutton bit her lip to fight back a thankful smile.

_"Instead, he insists that she is the founder and master mind of the team. More developments still to come as we look further into this young girl's life. Stay tuned."_

The earth tilted too far and Sutton fell off her log. The world was dark.


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sutton tries to recover from bad news and things just don't get better.

Blinking awake, Sutton found herself staring up at swaying trees and a few pitying faces. Her eyes drifted lazily from object to object while she let herself wake up fully. Bruce had her wrist in his hand and was keeping track of her pulse. Sutton blinked and sucked in a breath.

"How-how long have I been out," she asked.  
Bruce let go of her wrist.

"Just a couple minutes. Nothing serious."

She nodded and proceeded to sit up slowly. The hum of the radio was now off and she was grateful for it.

"Lady Sutton," began Thor. He was crouched before her and looking so distressed that it almost killed her. "I cannot tell you how sorry I am for my brother's actions. Know that he  _will_  see justice. He will right this wrong done to you."

Sutton shook her head and stood up gingerly, brushing off her jeans.

"You don't have to apologize for him, Thor. It's not your fault." She sighed and her hands were trembling at her sides. "I should have expected something like this."

Clint shot a glare at Natasha.

"Told you we couldn't trust him."

"Of course not. But he got us out of immediate danger. Everything else can be fixed later."

Sutton let out a huff of air through her nose.

"I don't know. This is...this is pretty bad. They think I'm a-a  _terrorist._   _Oh gosh_."

Tony shot Bruce a look, eyebrows raised, as if saying,  _see?_ Bruce just shook his head while removing his glasses and pinching between his eyes. Sutton narrowed her own eyes at him.

"What," she demanded. "What are you two not saying?"

Now Tony shook his head and waved at hand at her flippantly.

"Don't worry about it right now, kid."

Her nostrils flared in irritation but she was interrupted from insisting on an explanation by the announcement that it was finally time to leave. It was after five o'clock and dark enough to sufficiently cover their silhouettes in the shadows. Tony unpacked his suit for the first time since the pizza boy incident. He gripped the sides of the case and pulled outward; Sutton watched diligently as Tony Stark became Iron Man.

_Wow, that's still cool. Focus on the armor, focus on the mission. Don't think about jail. Don't think about Loki. Don't think about your future right now._

The armor wrapped perfectly and securely around his body showing just how it was made for  _him_. The red and gold shimmered in the little available light. Perhaps it would be a good idea if he worked on a stealth line of Iron Man suits. With his face plate still up Tony groaned.

"Ok, who's first? Let's get this over with."

Sutton tried  _not_  to imagine everyone lined up like Iron Man was a new amusement park ride, but it was too amusing not to consider.

_"Your IQ must be 'this high' in order to get a ride with Iron Man."_

Through her uneasiness she smiled flatly at her own joke. The two S.H.I.E.L.D agents stepped up first and Tony grabbed each under an arm and shot off. Sutton watched the blue glow from the repulsors as they faded away. Thor considered the skies and smiled to himself.

"How about you, Lady Sutton," he asked. "Would you like to fly as well?"

He was lazily spinning Mjölnir in his hand and Sutton's heart sped up. Maybe her life was spiraling out of control and maybe Loki had deliberately screwed her over and  _maybe_  she now had about a .01% chance of ever having her normal life back, but she couldn't deny herself this excitement.

" _Yes_."

She trotted up to Thor and saluted sarcastically at Steve and Bruce as they watched. Thor wrapped one beefy arm around her waist and held her tight against him. Sutton latched onto the once thought norse god as he shot into the open air. Swallowing back a scream as her hair whipped around her, Sutton forced her eyes open against the biting wind. There was absolutely nothing holding them up save for whatever ability Thor had. There was no reasonable, scientific explanation to how this was possible.  _It was magic._  Sutton let herself laugh and shot out one heartfelt  _'whoop'!_  For one moment, she was weightless.

After a few more moments of confirming that she was securely held by Thor, she was able to force herself to look down at the city below them. Scattered lights blinked up at her and the world seemed quiet. Sutton let loose a small close-lipped smile and hugged herself closer to Thor. She could at least milk this short moment for all it was worth. And it was a short moment. It felt like no sooner had they taken off, Thor landed next to the others. He landed gently on the balls of his feet and eased Sutton down until she was steady on her own legs. Pushing her hair back out of her face, Sutton gave him a grateful grin and squeezed his hand.

"Thank you, Thor. That was amazing."

Thor bobbed his head in a bow and took a step back.

"Come on, Fabio," Tony griped. "We still have two more damsels in distress to pick up, and you get Mr. Goody-goody."

Iron Man then shot off in the air and sped back the way they came, obviously set on not getting saddled with transporting the Captain. Sutton took a few steps back herself and settled near Clint and Natasha. They all watched as Thor joined Iron Man in the sky until they disappeared out of sight.

"I swear," said Clint, "if I hear him use one more nickname I am going to use him to practice hitting moving targets. I've been getting a little rusty."

Sutton bounced on the balls of her feet as they waited for the rest of the team. She wondered momentarily what Loki was doing and what reason she'd have to want to ring his slender, elegant neck for next. Her palms were starting to clam up despite the cool air and she stopped contemplating homicide for the sake of the mission. Pasting on a mask of nonchalance, she fidgeted next to the agents.

"So," she said. "Nothing about Budapest? Not even one little thing? You don't have very much time left to tell me, you know. And if you say nothing I'll just have to make assumptions."

"You know what they say about people who assume," remarked Clint.

Sutton did not know. But she glared regardless.

"I think I like it like this." Natasha smiled coyly. "We should get  _some_  secrets to ourselves after all."

"Fine," Sutton huffed. "But I'll just have to make something u-"

She fumbled a bit and never finished the sentence. Making up an event in Budapest wasn't really an option. Her face reddened slightly as Clint and Natasha watched. She couldn't change anything for them, or even take that chance, and be so cruel.

"Never mind," she muttered instead.

Natasha tilted her head in a show of sympathy and Sutton changed the subject.

"What do you think he's telling them about me?"

Natasha frowned.

"Do you actually want the truth or do you just want us to make you feel better?"

Sutton winced but actually considered the question. She sighed and then filled her lungs to capacity.

"The truth."

"If he hasn't escaped and started his way here already, he's probably doing everything in his power to make sure you can never prove yourself innocent."

Sutton bit her bottom lip harshly.

"But you said-"  
" _I'm sorry._ "

Sutton fought off tears and the wave of helplessness that wanted to wash away all her will. Before she could respond, Thor and Tony were back with Steve and Bruce and the discussion was cut off.

Natasha couldn't be right about  _everything_. There had to be a way to fix her life back to semi-normality.  _There had to._  Because if not, then what did she have for a future?

_She didn't look great in orange! She didn't know how to hold a shiv! Where did one even get a shiv? Did you make one out of a spork?_

"Alright ladies," Tony said while putting his suit away. "Are we ready for Mission Impossible?"

Clint raised his bow up, taking aim at Tony, and Natasha knocked it back down without even looking. He whined.

" _'Tasha-aaa."_

There was a chain link fence and wire cutters, that Sutton didn't even get to touch, and then they were sneaking single file through. She could not scour up the same amount of excitement as the last time they'd broken in. Despite her attempts to push away all negative emotion,  _weak, pathetic, selfish emotions,_ there was a cold biting dread building up from her stomach and spilling into her throat. The Avengers were going to leave and go back home and she'd be all alone. Right now they were the only thing keeping her afloat and protected. And maybe she'd miss them a bit.  _Most of them._  But she could get over missing them. She knew she could. Jail was a bit harder to ignore.

They reached the lab without fuss and immediately began working on procuring the necessary equipment. Sutton helped where she could, handing over tools that were out of reach and carting over bins of wires and other items she didn't even know the names of. Every one was doing as much as they could to accommodate The Brains. Natasha actually wasn't bad on a computer herself and was inputing data and programing whatever she could under Tony's supervision. Eventually, Sutton found herself settled and watching Bruce as he welded some metal pieces together to run wires through later.

"How are you feeling," he asked, disrupting the quiet. Sutton hesitated before giving a half-hearted smile.

"I'm alive," she chirped. "I'm ok. I'm going to miss you all, though, I think."

Bruce shifted a bit awkwardly as he put down the tool he'd been using.

"Look, Tony hasn't said anything, and he really should. I mean, it's your choice in the end, but-"

His voice quieted as the sentence went on, and Sutton leaned closer in order to hear him.

"But what? Is this what the weird looks have been about?"

Bruce looked down at her and Sutton's brow furrowed as she tried to discern the meaning of the shimmering on the surface of his rich brown eyes. His lips quirked to the side in a sad, self-depreciating sort of humor.

"You might not have to miss-"

"Hey Bruce!"

Tony strutted over from across the room and threw a hand around his companion's shoulders.

"Come on, buddy, I need your help assembling the power grid or we're never getting out of here. This universe barely has the technology to support this project as it is. What  _do_  you people do here? Bang sticks together for fun?"

Sutton sneered good-naturedly at the jibe, her nose crinkling up and eyes narrowing.

"If this project is too far out of your mental capacity,  _Tony_ , you can just tell us. No one would blame you. We always have Bruce."

Tony rolled his eyes into the heavens.

"Please," he scoffed. "I haven't had a problem I couldn't solve in minutes yet. You could almost say I'm the Sherlock Holmes of science."

"Oh  _come on_ ," Sutton complained. "I told you to stop looking yourself up online."

"Not me," Tony quipped. " _RDJ_."

Bruce motioned over to the space where Tony had traveled over from. There was some sort of platform already set up and the beginnings of... _something_  being built on top of it.

"That power grid," Bruce suggested while nodding his head over in that direction.

Tony smiled cheekily and complied. Sutton frowned at their retreating backs, miffed at the interruption when she was finally getting some answers. Then, when they were far enough away, she turned back around and delicately picked up the welding tool between a few fingers and gave a few experimental blows at the box that Bruce had been working on. The metal hissed and shot up sparks like mini fireworks. She giggled even as she pulled away so that her eyebrows didn't catch on fire. She torched the box a few more times and watched as the metal melded together.

"Put it down  _now_ , kid!"

Sutton dropped the tool instantly and spun around sheepishly. It clattered noisily on the counter, off the sectioned protected surface, and melted a section of the counter.

"Just trying to help!"

"Well stop."

Sutton gave one last longing look back at the welding torch before Tony snapped at her again and she hopped away from it. Given that she was obviously discouraged from  _helping_ , she planted herself in a swivel chair and watched the others work. It had only been a couple hours and they'd already gotten so far. There was the platform built, like she'd noticed before, and now there were two columns beginning to rise up on each end. Sutton thought it was looking suspiciously similar to the Star Gate portal. Except more rectangular. Her feet kicked out and she pushed herself into a spin, her head lolling back against the headrest. If only she knew more science. Or had at least done one of those  _make-your-own-circuit-board_  kits that you could get from Radio Shack. At least then she might be able to contribute  _something_.

Another hour or so passed and Sutton was growing drowsy and bored with the swivel chair. You could only spin so many times before nausea set in. With a new determination, Sutton stood up and stiffly straightened Steve's giant sweatshirt she was still wearing before marching over to the worker bees. The columns on the platform had peaked at a height of what she would guess as seven feet. Not that she was the best guesser of distances or heights, but still. It was taller than Thor. And then the there was a beam connecting the two columns and closing off the space like some sort of misplaced doorway to nowhere. And it really wasn't pretty. Not like the stuff Tony usually made was. It looked like this was a junkyard conglomeration of parts. Scrap pieces of metal had been welded together in chunky groups and mismatched grays clashed on top of one another. There were wires hanging out at irregular intervals and connecting in odd places and Sutton really hoped they weren't hot yet.

"Will this thing actually work," she asked. "Because you don't have time for prototypes and this looks a bit…rough."

Bruce was busy typing into a keyboard with one hand and tightening a screw with the other.

"Well, we don't really have the time or equipment for…  _pretty_."

Tony could be identified by only his old converse sneakers as he was wedged up underneath the platform. Some metal striking metal sounds could be heard followed by a loud hiss of errant static which was then followed by a sudden yelp from Tony.

"Are you seriously complaining about the way my portal looks," his muffled voice called out in agitation. "Did you not hear what I said about your world's lack of anything remotely high tech? Do not make me come out from under here!"

Sutton held out her hands in surrender while rolling her eyes despite the fact that Tony couldn't see her.

"Geesh,  _just asking_ ; calm down. Sorry I insulted your marvelous portal."

"You ought to be since it's going to save your-  _Ow!_ "

Sutton covered her mouth with her hand to hold back laughter as a string of profanities escaped from beneath the platform. Steve rolled his eyes from across the room and she realized that such language probably didn't surprise him after serving in the military. She caught the faint smirk that flashed across Clint's face at the ordeal and assumed he was counting this as retribution for having to deal with Tony's personality and nickname penchant for so long. Thor suddenly reentered the room, alerting Sutton to the fact that he hadn't been there for a time. He was carrying with ease a giant generator that no normal man would have been able to lift.

"Is this the device that you requested," he asked as he carefully set down the generator. Bruce looked away from his work quickly to assess it.

"That's it. Good work, Thor. If you could just put it over on that side of the portal, that'd be perfect."

Sutton watched as Thor's biceps only flexed slightly when lifting the heavy piece of machinery. It had to weigh at least three-hundred pounds, and he was lifting it like a petty hay bale.

Sutton was all-in-all impressed.  _Not with Thor's feat of strength_ , though it was fun to watch, but with the  _progress_  that was being made on everything. She wondered once again if it was all them, which she wouldn't doubt, or if her  _capable-of-anything_  attitude and outlook on them had anything to do with it. It seemed like something of this magnitude should take years and billions of dollars to complete. And that would be  _after_  all the research had been finished. This, come to think of it, made her wonder how many thousands and millions of dollars' worth of equipment Tony and Bruce where destroying and altering beyond repair by doing this.

_Not that it matters_ , she reminded herself.

What would adding a few million in vandal charges really do to her domestic terrorism charges?

Curse Loki!

_And speak of the devil!_

A set of double doors across the lab burst open and everyone snapped to attention. Tony's legs jerked and a dull  _thud_  was heard followed by more expletives. Clint readied his bow, Natasha had two pistols pointed at the door,  _had she had those this whole time,_  and Steve and Thor were standing with tense spines. Loki's own cheshire grin was all he was armed with.

"Did you miss me?"

Tony crawled out from under his working space and the team faltered with indecision of whether it was wise to lower their weapons or not. Sutton felt her cool blood instantly run hot.

" _Please_ ," Loki admonished while nodding at their weapons. "There'll be no need for those. In fact, you should be thanking me. This fortress is blind to our presence completely now, and the guards are… _resting_. We should not be bothered."

Sutton could not contain the level of animosity she was currently feeling. She thought she'd be mostly ok when he came back after everything. But his cheeky face was like dumping alcohol on a gaping wound.

" _Thanking you,_ " she seethed. She took a couple brazen steps forward while pointing a finger aggressively in his direction. "Thanking you for  _labeling me as a domestic terrorist?_  You told me you'd prove me innocent and then go on to tell them that I'm the  _mastermind behind it all_? You've ruined my life beyond repair! You- _you cotton-headed-ninny-muggins, foul breathed, warthog faced buffoon, son of a biscuit-"_

She was still marching forward when Clint wrapped one arm around her waist and swung her around so she was facing the opposite direction. At her frustrated sputtering he inclined his head.

"You do remember that there's a line, don't you?"

Sutton scowled but knew which battles she could stand a chance of winning and which ones to let go of.

"I thought that was a metaphorical thing."

"Definitely not."

Thor stepped forward and was visibly frustrated. He kept one hand clenched in a fist at his side while the other hand lifted palm up.

"Loki, you gave your word that you would assist Lady Sutton in her dilemma. How could you mar your own name?"

Loki let his arms fall limply at his sides and gazed at Thor blandly.

"I lied, Thor," he said. " _I lie_. Have you really not noticed? You must be more daft than I originally thought."

" _Loki_   _you will_ -"

"The authorities will not be long, I'm afraid. How much longer until your portal is complete?"

Sutton felt all the hot blood drain from her face.

"Wait-what!"

"As much as I'd love to see Loki get his comeuppances this very second, we really need to speed this process along  _now_."

Steve drew the team back into focus and slowly the weapons were lowered back down. Sutton's nostrils flared in ire as she crossed her arms over her chest and turned around to join the others. With a chin up in the air she flounced over to an empty counter top and perched herself atop it. It was best she just keep herself out of the way unless someone specifically asked for her. And that was unlikely. She contented herself with glowering at the scenery. Her gaze softened as the minutes wore on and she began to realize that this day could very well be her last with them.

_They were good people._

She was sure they were all ready to get back to their own lives now. And to spend some time  _not_ in the constant presence of each other. They did make a good team,  _eventually at least_ , but she was sure in this case there was such thing as too much of a good thing.

A shadow was cast over her hunched posture and her spine stiffened in response.

"You can go away," she said stiffly. "I don't want to talk to you."

Loki glided around the counter and leaned against it closer to her than she was comfortable with. It was hard to believe that she felt this way when a month or so ago she would have been drooling over this opportunity.

"My dear," Loki cooed. "You really should be thanking me. I've worked so diligently to expand your horizons. And quite selflessly too."

"I'm not a complete idiot," she snapped. "This has nothing to do with my wellbeing or what  _I_ want. You want to use me. I may not know all of what you're planning anymore, but it's so not going to work with everyone onto you. Now all you've done is grant me a oneway ticket to life without parole. Forgive me if I'm not groveling at your feet."

"Pity, it would suit you quite well."

Sutton bit the inside of her cheek and chose not to respond to his goading. The silence lingered as she pointedly refused to look at his face. She would not enable him. Ignoring him was the best option.

"I used to think you were misguided or misunderstood or some other stupid excuse, but the more time I spend with you I'm starting to think you're just a jerk."

Loki straightened even further in her peripheral vision and stared down his nose at her.

"You know nothing of me or my motives."

"I know enough."

_"Do you?"_

Sutton jumped as his voice sounded not in her ear, but  _in her head._

_"Do you even know all that I am capable of? All that I have seen? Have you ever stood before a being like HIM and pledged away your soul? What could you, a mere mortal, know about anything?"_

Even the vague mention of Thanos sent a shiver down Sutton's spine and she finally turned to glare at Loki. His lips were still and didn't looked like they'd moved at all these last couple sentences.

"No I haven't," she admitted. "Because I'm smarter than that.  _No offense, of course_."

Loki appeared to maybe have taken a little offense. His voice adopted a lower octave as his eyes flashed.

"Do you believe that  _you_  would be so easily free of him? A person of your ability he would not wait to be indebted to him."

Sutton crossed her arms over her chest tightly and looked away again to watch the progress being made.

"Then I would just believe him gone or powerless or dead or something. "

Loki's grin could only be described as feral and she was able to catch a glimpse of it from the corner of her eye as it stretched across his face. It made her want them to build the portal faster. Not that they could  _go_  much faster. And it had already come so far as it was. A few bluish sparks spat out from one end of the rightmost column as Bruce and Tony worked on the electrical aspects of it.

They really should have been wearing more protective gear than they were.

Again the silence stretched on until Sutton's skin started to itch from the inside. There should really be no more conversation between her and the green clad Prince of Jerks than strictly necessary. But she  _needed_  to know.

"Why did you tell them that I was involved and the leader of all this?  _Besides, 'just for fun'._ There had to be a purpose for it. I've never done anything to you; I don't deserve your fury."

Loki actually had the gall to laugh at her.

"You believe that I am angry at you? Do you all think this? Really, you make it all too easy. I have not even tried to disguise my motives. Come now, you must have some idea as to the purpose of all this. You are the one, after all, who pointed out that I could benefit from allies."

"Well you don't do a very good job at trying to get people to side with you."

"I hardly need people to side  _with_  me," he said simply. "I only need someone else to be a worse choice."

Sutton puzzled over his words and his words from before as he patiently waited for her to come to a conclusion.  _Hopefully the correct one_. Another bout of nausea struck her as Loki's hints and Tony's actions suddenly had a common thread.

"I am not your ally," she said shakily. "And I live here. In this universe."

"You do," agreed Loki. "And I wonder what future awaits you should you chose to stay."

Sutton leaped off the counter top and made a dash for Tony. His back was to her as he turned a few crudely fashioned dials on the side of the portal.

" _Tony,_ " Sutton rushed out. "Why did you need a reading from me on that machine in the car? Why did you include me?"

Tony only hesitated a moment before craning his head over his shoulder quickly.

"Just a Plan Z, don't worry about it right now."

"Oh, and when would be a good time,  _huh_?"

" _Probably_ , when I'm not neck deep in equations and high voltage wires."

Sutton snapped back at him.

" _I live_ _here!_ My family is  _here_. You can't think I'd leave! You'd be playing right into  _his_  plan," she said while pointing at the guilty party, "and I'd never see anyone I care about ever again!"

Tony finally swiveled around to face her and responded more firmly than he'd spoken to her before.

"You'll never see them again if you stay here either! Would you rather never see them again while in a cement box or as a free person?"

Sutton sucked in air through her teeth as she bit her lower lip and Bruce admonished his friend quietly.

" _Tony…._ "

"That's the cold, hard truth," Tony defended. "And you're going to have to come to grips with that. And quickly."

Her eyes were stinging again and she blinked them furiously. Tony closed his own eyes and sighed resignedly.

"You had to see this coming, Small Fry," he said in a much gentler voice.

"I just thought-" She wasn't sure what she'd thought, but it hadn't been this. Maybe she'd purposefully blinded herself to any outcome that she didn't find favorable, but she felt stupid and manipulated and lost all over again. "I don't know," she admitted. "I don't know if I can do that. I belong here."

"I know," said Tony.

Clint interrupted and Sutton felt grateful for the excuse to break away.

"We really need to finish this," he said. "The sun is coming up soon."

Sutton slipped away to a corner on her own and slid against the wall until she was planted on the floor. Her knees came up to her chest and she wrapped her arms around them and just let her mind go blank.

_Look who's MarySue-ing it now,_  she snarked.  _"Oh I get to live in_ _Avenger-land,_ _"_ she thought in a high squeaky voice.  _That's the oldest cliché in the alternate universe book. Way to go._

Maybe she should be excited by the idea.  _They were literally offering it up to her and pushing the choice after all_. But it didn't send her into giddy giggles like she'd have thought. How could she be thrilled by the idea of leaving her family behind forever? Her friends? Her life! No doubt, she thought the Avengers were great, but not enough to compensate for everything she'd be losing. And what would happen to her when they all went their separate ways? It's not like she was going to move into a penthouse with all of them and live out Seinfeld episodes. She'd be lost in a world she always thought of as fictional and vulnerable to the same massive threats she found thrilling on the big screen. She'd forever be wondering what was going to happen to her. She'd be stuck on an earth that was accessible to Loki.  _To Thanos_.

"Alright Thor!" She heard Tony call out. "Care to give this puppy a nice kick start?"

Thor lifted one sneaker clad foot over the generator and everybody surged forward.

"No, no, no! I meant lightning!  _Lightning!_ "

Thor appeared a bit befuddled before he complied correctly this time. He lifted his hammer high into the air and Sutton watched as a surge of blue light slammed through the roof of the lab and shot down to engulf the unsuspecting generator. With a roar it came to life with  _who knows how much_  more power than it should have. The blue light poured from the generator and traveled up to the portal where it hissed and popped and then cascaded down between the columns. It now looked like a bright blue film stretched across both ends of the platform. Even if that's all their machine did, Sutton would have found it amazing.

"Ok," said Tony. "Who wants to test it first?"

Obviously approximately zero people stepped forward to volunteer.

"I was kidding people," he complained. "Sheesh, I don't run human trials first."

Sutton piped up from her corner.

"Actually, when you were first building your-"

"Shut up."

"Or when you'd just discovered that new-"

"Shut up!"

Tony and Bruce began running diagnostics on the portal and taking readings after a short  _huzzah_  that it actually turned on in the first place. Sutton stayed in her corner letting the exhaustion creeping over her gain ground. When was the last time she'd actually slept  _well_? She was just starting to doze off when a shadow was cast over her and she startled awake.

"It's just me."

Natasha stood next to her and crouched down to be more at eye level. In her hand was a scrap piece of paper and a pen and she offered it over to Sutton.

"Life isn't always fair," she said. "Sometimes you have to pick yourself up and just keep going. Sometime you aren't going to be happy for a long time. If you decide to come, it might make you feel better to leave a note. Maybe they'll get to read it, maybe they won't, but at least you'll have some form of closure either way."

Sutton stared at the paper for a moment before she accepted it with shaking hands.

"Thank you."

Natasha nodded and then stood up and left Sutton to her thoughts. The blank page taunted her to divulge in excuses that she would never be able to back up and to try and pour out her soul in sentences that wouldn't make sense. She uncapped the pen and pressed it firmly to the page's surface anyway.

_Mom, Howard, Tyrese, and whoever else you guys let read this:_

_I am so sorry. I know you must be freaking out. But I promise you this isn't anything like what the news has been saying about me. Mom, you know me. You know I couldn't do this. I can't really explain it, because no one would believe me, but something happened. Something out of this world, fantastical happened and I got sucked into it and, well, it went all sorts of sideways. Now I have a choice to make, mom, and I wish I could ask you what to do. I miss you. I'm_ _going_ _t_ _o miss you; because no matter what I chose I won't get to see you or live normally ever again._

_I love you all so much…_

She continued to write until the paper was filled up. And then she folded the page carefully, like it was a reverent last act, and scribbled her mom's home address on it and hoped it got there. She finished up just as Tony was saying,

_"Now I think we should send something through and see if we get a response,"_

at the exact same time that Clint was barking,

_"We've got company!"_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey lovely readers! This story is starting to come to a close now, only two chapters left! 
> 
> And I just wanted to note that I was taking a few liberties with Loki's powers. I know the movies don't say that he has telepathy, but in the comics he does, so I decided to throw a little of that in there as well. 
> 
> Additionally, if you want to watch a dumb trailer for this story you've already read most of, I did make one. (I was bored, ok?) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oe4MsYUFJQ


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The SWAT team isn't very happy, and the portal really needs to be finished.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only one more chapter after this, people! Ahh!
> 
> Still feel free to review! ;)

There was a commotion coming from right outside the lab. Heavy footsteps grew louder as they came down the hallway and Sutton could suddenly feel the tension fill the room like static.

"Try to barricade the doors," ordered Steve jumping into his role as leader. "It won't keep them out for long, but at least it can buy us a little more time. We'll set up a perimeter around Tony and Bruce and hold them off until the portal is ready to go."

Sutton tried to help. She gripped one end of a long lab table and worked with Clint to shove it in front of the double doors that Loki had barged through. The same Loki who had just escaped federal custody, blinded security cameras to their presence, and rendered an entire shift of night guards unconscious. The same Loki who was now making  _zero effort_ to lift a finger and help. With the table in place, they scrambled to find more items of significant weight to place in front of the entryways. Sutton found a large metal drum that she attempted to scoot or roll in place, but it was too much for her to budge. She looked around trying to find someone with bulk, finally was able to make eye-contact with Steve, and waved him over.

"Hey! Can you move this? It's  _really_  heavy."

Steve was able to heft it up off the floor and carry it over to its destination with only marginally more effort than it took him to lift a punching bag. Sutton could tell because his arms didn't even quiver and the muscles in his back that were pushing through the fabric of his t-shirt shifted easily. Sutton shot the drum an unimpressed look.

"Nows not exactly the best time for showing off your muscles, Steve," she said. He was quick to reply with a smarmy grin despite them being in a hurry.

"Nows not the best time for you to be noticing them."

The rapidity in which Sutton's face went red was just a notch below the speed of light.

"Sometimes I forget that you can be snarky too," she complained. Her attention was suddenly diverted by an unguarded doorway. "Oh snap, that door says  _'push'_  on our side. We're going to have to wedge it closed or something."

The far set of double doors suddenly rattled violently and there was a warning shouted through the wall. Sutton blanched. Steve brought her attention back to himself and away from the doors.

"Hey, there should be some scrap metal leftover from Bruce and Tony that's long enough to reach across the doorway. Find one and put it through the door handle, ok?"

Sutton nodded and scrambled off to find a pole long enough. After several minutes of frantic searching she finally found a piece that would be adequate for the job, and hurried to shove it through the handle until it stretched across the threshold. The door shook the second she was finished and Sutton jumped back with a shriek.

"We're surrounded! It's official!"

The team had gathered back around the portal as a last line of defense. They didn't have much else going for them. Loki,  _the tyrant_ , was lounging on his back on a cleared table top and casually tossing a wrench in the air and catching it repeatedly. Sutton wished he'd drop it just once.

_No that wasn't nice._

But it would be pretty funny.

He could probably do something about this; a force field of magic, maybe, or a sleep spell, or  _something_. But by now she'd finally figured out that it would do no good to ask, plead, or badger him about it. It would only serve to amuse him. Besides, knowing now that he had been working this whole time to ensure she had no realistic hope of happily staying here, there was no way anyone was going to convince him to assist in their dilemma. Sutton ran back to the safety of the group and huddled down behind Clint and Natasha.

"Ok, so now what," she asked.

"Now," Clint raised his bow up and took aim at the double doors, "we wait from them to break through."

Natasha shot a look back at the scientists.

"How much longer on that portal, guys? We don't have all day."

Tony flicked a recently made paper airplane at the blue light of the portal and winced as it went up in smoke and ash.

"I don't remember badgering  _you_  about a portal when we were up against a horde of blood-thirsty freaks from outer space."

"Tony means that we just need to dial in on the correct settings and, in the best case scenario, see if we can get some response from the other side before we step through," Bruce explained.

Tony was back at the dials and reading over notes.

"No, pretty sure I meant ' _shut up, we'll get there when we get there'._ "

Bruce sighed in exasperation.

There was a sudden echoing around the room. Hissing static sounded from the ceiling and Sutton looked up and for the first time noticed speakers installed.

_"Sutton Regan and associates,"_ the voice sounded from the PA system.  _"This is Agent Pere_ _z. My team has secured this building and I am demanding your immediate surrender. If you do not comply, we will use force. Sutton Regan should approach the door and knock to signal that all obstacles have been removed. You will then lay on the floor with your hands behind your back. You have two minutes to comply."_

Sutton gulped loudly and tried to use Clint and Natasha to shield her from view of the door.

"He was slightly friendlier last time," she remarked. "Maybe he didn't appreciate being kicked in the face."

"Get ready," Clint said, ignoring her statement. "When we don't follow their orders they're probably going to bust in here with flash grenades first." He tilted his head down to look at Sutton over his shoulder. "Stay near Tony and Bruce unless we tell you otherwise, got it?"

Sutton nodded obediently. She assumed they didn't have much faith in her fighting abilities, and they were right to doubt them. Perhaps she should have tried to convince Natasha to train her in some Black Widow moves during their stay.

_But then that would have meant she actually had to work out._

Tony's voice dragged her attention back to the portal as he instructed offhandedly for Bruce to,  _try poking it with something now_. Sutton wondered which part of the scientific process "poking" was. Bruce prodded the field with some sort of reader device and it held for a moment before promptly exploding. The shock scorched Bruce's arm which instantly turned green and bulged outward. Sutton heard him growl deep in his throat as his eyes flashed green before he took an aggressive breath and swallowed it all back down. His arm melted back to its usual pale flesh.

" _Nope_." He tried to read any information left on the device's display screen. "I think our magnetic field levels are too high and clashing with-"

_"Your two minutes are up,"_  Agent Perez announced over the PA system.  _"My men will be entering the lab and have been authorized to use force to settle this situation. You will not be warned again._ "

Sutton's heartbeat frantically skittered against her ribcage. Something rammed against the door from the opposite side and caused a groan from the barricade they'd hurriedly put up. Sutton eyed the doors in a state of expectant anxiety.

"You said flash grenades? Should we have ear plugs or gas masks or something? SWAT teams use tear gas too, I think. I'm pretty sure I've seen it on COPS before."

"Close your eyes," suggested Clint. "And stay in one spot like I told you."

It had to be the least helpful advice Sutton had ever received, and not at all the solution she had been hoping for.

The doors bulged inward again and again. The table they'd pushed against the door screeched back against the floor. Clint adjusted his notched arrow. Thor glanced over at his brother and had just opened his mouth when Loki drawled out,

_"no."_

Thor glared, his look promising future discussion, before he focused back on the battle ahead.

Maybe it shouldn't have worried her so much. The Avengers  _did_  battle, and defeat, a massive alien invasion, after all. And none of the incoming soldiers were super charged with unusual weapons. But there was always the room for disaster and the portal still wasn't working.

"Hey, Tony," she piped up. "If you let me borrow your suit, I could-"

"Take my ' _no_ ' and multiply it by infinity. Now hush up, I'm trying to do science."

Sutton grumbled, but before she could get too distracted, there was a mighty crash against the doors and their faulty barricade went scattering.

The SWAT team did not waste time or hesitate. And Clint wasn't wrong. Sutton was peeking through her fingers as she watched a hand chuck a metal cylinder into the room. Clint released his arrow and let it fly at the grenade. The arrow struck true before the grenade even hit the ground. The cylinder sparked once, but didn't go off like it was supposed to and Clint smirked.

"Told you that one would come in handy, 'Tasha."

Natasha rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, well, you didn't quite need to use it in New York, did you? So I was still right."

The doors before them were slammed open and a trail of men in black armor came pouring through, guns at the ready. Sutton didn't think her face had ever felt so cold. And suddenly it was loud. She assumed that the SWAT team had noticed their giant,  _still not working,_  portal and the armed agents pitted before them. They were shouting the typical catch phrases you'd expect in this sort of situation. Things like,

_"drop your weapons,"_

_"step away from the machine,"_ and

_"we_ _will_ _shoot."_

The last one caught Sutton's attention the most.

_Why couldn't they just talk it out?_

Steve stood up finally, arms up non-threateningly, and tried to reason with their adversaries.

"Fellas, listens, we're not-"

_"Get down!_ "

"I'm sure we can-"

" _Get down or we will shoot!_ "

Steve frowned as if merely irritated that they were being so uncooperative.

"Alright then," he said. "If you want to go about it that way."

Sutton had backed herself up as far as she could without being in Tony and Bruce's way, but she was still keeping wide eyes trained on the confrontation. They were in a bit of a stalemate and Sutton figured it was a game of  _who is going to react first_? She had her non-existent money on the SWAT team. They usually shot first, asked questions later, right? Especially since they had a couple guns (and arrows) pointed right back at them.

Yeah, law enforcement usually wasn't too fond of that.

Sutton's focus was drawn to the side of the room when she saw one of the officers shake his head and then stare at the Avengers with a befuddled expression.

_Oh boy._

"Bruce," barked Natasha. The frazzled scientist shook his head and didn't waste time turning around to answer.

"We're working on it."

Clint tightened his grip on the arrow and then loosened his fingers without actually releasing the projectile.

"Any time now would be great. Just saying."

The SWAT team was getting fidgety and Sutton knew they wouldn't tolerate their uncooperativeness much longer. She was surprised they'd lasted this long, actually. They told them  _one last time_  to drop their weapons and raise their hands above their heads, or they'd fire on them. Sutton's hands trembled at her sides. No one moved. Natasha just kept her fingers on the triggers and gave a close-lipped smile. And then Sutton heard it. The  _pop, pop, pop-ing_  of gunfire. Her eyes snapped closed and she waited for pain or a light or weightlessness. But nothing came. Opening her eyes, she saw something shimmer like a dim light before the group every time it was struck by a bullet. Loki swung his long legs off the table he'd been resting on and rolled his eyes.

"Come now," he chided. "That was uncalled for, and guns are such a  _lazy_  weapon. Absolutely no imagination at all."

The gunfire slowly ceased and Sutton was able to take a breath. There was no evidence of damage done to anyone at all. Tony whirled around regardless and glared furiously at the government agents.

"If you put even a  _scratch_  on this thing, I  _swear!_ "

The SWAT team was staring at them in various degrees of shock and horror. The man she'd noticed earlier was moving his lips, but it took a while before any sound came out.

"They look like- He just-"

Given that Loki seemed to be willing to keep them from all resembling swiss cheese on a bad day, Natasha lowered her pistols and Clint aimed his bow at the floor instead of their knees.

"We don't want to fight you," Steve said.

Thor agreed.

"Please, I ask that you refrain from firing your  _guns_  at my friends and me. It is becoming wearisome."

But at the order of their leader, the SWAT team bravely surged forward in an attempt to overwhelm them. If they were also trying to intimidate them, it worked on Sutton. She yelped in surprise and backpedaled further into Tony and Bruce's workspace.

"Hey! Watch it, Small Fry!"

With using guns obviously out of the question, the SWAT team resorted to trying pure physical force. It erupted into a brawl in the blink of an eye. Sutton could hardly blink herself. There was too much going on! The SWAT team was attempting to break into the center of their circle, where the portal and she were. And it was chaos around her. Natasha was spinning and kicking and twisting like a ballerina of death while Clint took non-fatal shots at whoever was bold enough to come too close.

Thor and Steve had moved to the other side of the portal in order to protect the rear.

On the edges of the fight, that one officer lingered as if he couldn't decide if he should join in or not. He looked young, from what she could see under his helmet, probably a few years older than her. And for the first time, Sutton realized that he actually looked scared too. Seeing his eyes wide and lips pressed together firmly hit her hard. She related to him in that brief second. He was SWAT. He was the  _best of the best_. He was fearless. But he was human. And Loki had just stopped their bullets  _Matrix_ style without even lifting a finger. And Sutton suddenly understood that it didn't matter how innocent she was, because  _they_   _were good guys too._ He was doing his job to protect people, and she would want herself caught too if all she knew was what skewed information they had been given.

The man finally seemed to make a decision after seeing his comrades in action, and forced himself to charge into the fray. To her left, Thor lifted his hammer and Sutton watched in terror as he let it charge up. He leveled his gaze at a group of men running toward him, including the young officer, and Sutton felt a new fear spike within her. A different fear that wasn't for focused on herself for once.

Without thinking, she shot off into the mass and dove for the young officer. Using all the momentum she had, she wrapped her arms around his legs and knocked him heavily onto the floor. The crackling blue electricity from Thor just almost brushed against the man's helmet. The officer's helmet  _cracked_  against the solid floor and Sutton used his moments of dazed confusion as time to breathe.

"Thor!" She finally shouted above the din of battle. "Don't  _kill_  them! They aren't  _bad guys_!"

Thor hefted Mjölnir in his hand as if considering it and then sighed mightily and set it down. He reentered the fight with severely restrained punches. Before Sutton could say anything about being  _so sorry for inconveniencing_ him, she found herself face-first shoved into the floor and one arm pulled behind her back.

"Ow! Hey!"

The young officer had finally recovered and, despite being entirely freaked out, was still a trained professional.

"Sutton Regan," he said breathlessly. "You are under arrest for suspicion of plotting domestic terrorism."

Sutton bucked, trying to break free, but she didn't have strength to compare to his.

" _Hey!_  I just saved your life! Doesn't that count for _anything?_ "

One metal cuff bit around her wrist and Sutton flailed violently.

"Hey! Let me go! I am  _not a terrorist!_ Let me try to explain-"

He was trying to grab her free wrist, but Sutton kept twisting and yanking and stretching it out of his way.

" _How about you explain to me why these guys look exactly like a freaking Marvel squad,_ " the man hissed while still wrestling for her free arm.

"Help!"

The man had finally gotten ahold of her free wrist and was pulling it back towards himself when his weight suddenly disappeared from her back. Sutton scrambled forward, the handcuff clinking against the ground as she pushed herself into a standing position and twisted around to see which one of her heroes had rescued her. It didn't really surprise her that it was Thor. She was more surprised that he hadn't come over quicker. He was easily lifting the officer in the air by the back of his bullet proof vest the way one would pick up a naughty puppy by the scruff of the neck.

"The lady spares your life, and this is how you repay her?"

The young officer was stammering wildly as he gaped up at the wielder of thunder.

"Y-y-you  _are_  Thor?"

Thor grinned jovially.

"I am, and you are fighting the wrong enemy, _friend._ "

The man was babbling unintelligible gibberish again and Sutton quickly snapped the other end of the cuff closed so it couldn't easily be used against her.

"Thanks, Thor! I appreciate it, buddy. You have great timing."

Thor nodded and tossed the man over to the side as he grinned at her. Sutton winced as the officer cried out in shock and then rolled a little ways across the floor.

He should be  _fine._

"You are welcome, Lady Sutton. I apologize for not coming sooner."

She waved off his apology and then jumped in surprise as one SWAT team member's assault was deflected by Steve nearby. He redirected the man's momentum to the side and knocked him off balance which consequently caused the man to fall onto the side of the portal. Tony jumped up with arms waving.

"Hey! Whoa,  _whoa!_ Not cool!"

Bruce rushed up to the portal and was evaluating if any damage was done with a new,  _unexploded_ , reading device.

"Come on, man! Do you know how hard it was to get this equipment to work in the first place? Watch where you're throwing people, Grandpa!"

" _Stark-"_

"Actually, Tony, take a look at these readings."

Bruce held the device over so Tony could see, and the billionaire responded by raising his eyebrows. He snatched a piece of loose paper from the table, crumpled it up in a ball, and chucked it at the portal. The paper disappeared through the blue light and didn't emerge from the other side. Tony stood back with his hands on his hips and grunted.

" _Really?_  The old  _whack it to make it work_  thing actually works? I'm a little disappointed, honestly."

Natasha and Clint edged closer to the portal and shouted above the fighting.

"Stark, I swear if you don't hurry up with that portal I will sic Pepper on you first thing when we get back!"

" _Hey!_ "

"I'll tell Rhodey about you riding in that crappy car," Clint added.

" _Fine!_ "

Sutton danced her way around the dwindling fighting and made her way over to the portal and to relative safety. Bruce and Tony were frantically recording more readings on the now  _possibly_  functioning portal.

"Is it really going to work?"

"Give me a sec."

She watched as they worked on fine tuning the portal and sat herself on one of their tables. They were hastily discussing ways of ensuring that they had activated a path to the right universe and the side effects possible from traveling dimensions via untested passageways. While they were busy discussing, Sutton found another piece of paper and a pen. Quickly, she scribbled,

_Is anyone there and, if so, how much stock in your company does Tony Stark own? This is vitally important._

Following Tony's lead, she folded the paper into a plane and flicked it through. Luckily, the officer had only gotten her left hand cuffed, because trying to toss a paper airplane with that weight bouncing around would have thrown her off. She probably would have missed. Bruce shot her a look that clearly said,  _what do you think you're doing? This is serious science._ But then she didn't have much time to think about it because there was another shocking wave of armed forces barging in and they were again in real peril.  _These guys seemed to have sharper teeth._

These guys didn't hesitate or warn them, they just opened fire. Sutton screamed and dropped off the table to try and shield herself. And then she sheepishly looked up, noticed that once again Loki was shielding them, and stood on two shaky legs. Despite his eye roll, Loki flashed an annoyed glance at their team.

"Really, can't we move at a slightly quicker pace than Thor with a book?"

Everyone glared at him simultaneously. A piece of paper suddenly came flying back through the portal and knocked Tony in the side of the head.

"What the-"

It had been folded into a little triangle and Tony unfolded it in a flurry of movement.

"What's it say?"

The smirk on Tony's face erupted into a full blown grin and he read the note aloud.

_"Who is this? Where do you come from? Why are you interested in Stark Industries' investments?"_

Sutton smiled, proud of herself.

"See, easy, no science required."

Tony gave her a flat look that spoke of how much he appreciated her comment. Clint suddenly grunted as he failed to block all of a punch in time.

" _Seriously,_  I know we're good, but it's not all fun and games over here!"

Tony and Bruce shared a look and Bruce shrugged, his  _science_  ray reader-thing held up towards the portal.

"It appears to be safe according to the data I'm getting back," he said. "And the note is a promising sign. Obviously the paper went through undamaged enough to read, and the one we received back is in perfect condition." He shrugged again helplessly. "There's only one way to find out, really."

And then, without further warning, Bruce stepped through the portal threshold. Sutton made a choking noise in the back of her throat and reached out, but it was too late. He'd already passed through. The room suddenly stilled and the gunfire ceased. One SWAT team member pulled his helmet back further on his head and paled.

_"Where did he- He walked through nothing..."_

_"The heck?"_

Everyone waited. And waited. Sutton found herself wringing her hands and chewing on her lower lip. After several minutes there was a shimmer in the blue light and Bruce reappeared. Sutton let out a breath and grinned widely.

"You did it!"

The two SWAT teams went berserk, their guns went back up, the shouting started again, and Sutton felt the pressure of her choice looming right before her. It sunk into her stomach and rolled around like rocks in a tumbler.

_To stay and go to prison? Or to leave it all behind?_

Bruce smiled a real smile at them and gestured to their way home.

"It's good. It works. It actually works! I can't believe it."

Natasha grit her teeth and glared at the mini celebration.

" _If it works, t_ _hen get through._ "

Tony held up a finger on one hand and fixed a couple of dials and adjusted a few settings.

"Ok guys," he said. "We have three minutes. Then the portal will,  _well_ , pretty much self destruct. We can't have normal people sneaking through dimensions, can we?"

Thor gripped Loki behind the elbow and dragged him over to the portal. Loki glared in irritation at his  _not_  brother, but couldn't do too much to protest his treatment. And then, with a nod to each of them, Thor and Loki vanished through the blue light. Bruce hopped back through afterwards, probably to help keep an eye on Loki and make sure there were no hiccups on the other side. With Loki gone, the barrier that kept the bullets away was gone too and their situation would no longer allow hesitation. Sutton stood with feet frozen to the laminate floor. The world tilted again but she blinked away a few black spots and remained upright.

"Can't stall, Small Fry," Tony said. "It's now or never. None of us are exactly bulletproof."

She stared at the blue light that flickered and danced before her like an invitation. Her mouth went dry.

"You're sure I won't see them again anyway, if I stay?"

Tony rested a hand on her shoulder.

"Look around, Small Fry."

One quick glance told her everything she needed to know. There were men with guns, men who were convinced of her guilt, and would now be for sure after watching this stunt. They would say she helped attempt to make some sort of weapon of mass destruction, or something just as ridiculous. Natasha, Steve, and Clint were starting to lose the battle of holding the masses at bay. She opened her shaking hand, palm up, and waited until Tony gripped it in reply. She swallowed back her doubt and blinked.

"Ok."

Her voice was small and unsure, but the words were unmistakable.

"Let's do this," Tony said. "Before Natasha and Bird-Man over there shoot us themselves."

" _Really considering it_ ," Natasha remarked.

"The  _nicknames_ , 'Tasha," Clint complained.

Sutton clutched Tony's hand with as much force as she could and then, she walked through the blinding blue light. It was like nothing she had ever experienced. The sensation hummed under her skin and rushed through her like an overwhelming feeling that she couldn't name. She felt immensely small and incredibly large all at once. It was unexplainable. It was strange. And then she blinked and she was there. All the way through. She found herself staring into the same room she'd just left, but instead faced with a gaggle of baffled men and women in white lab coats and uneasy faces. The figures of Thor, Loki, and Bruce were off to the side. One woman with a clipboard stepped forward and tilted her head in question.

"Mr. Stark?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Talk to me! Let me know what you think! Do you think Sutton made the right choice?


	20. Chapter 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sutton enters the Marvel Universe. This story wraps up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my goodness! The last chapter guys! I hope you enjoyed the ride, and there IS a sequel, actually! (If you're interested.)

Sutton and Tony flailed and stumbled forward as their level of elevation suddenly changed. It was like they'd missed that one last step in the staircase and almost killed themselves trying to recover. Her stomach clenched as she toppled forward, her ankle almost rolling, before she regained her footing. Lucky for her she wasn't wearing heels. After a moment of letting herself just breath, she looked behind her to find the hazard. The platform was completely gone as if it hadn't even been there. And that was the only difference she could see so far. A woman in a lab coat stepped forward and cocked her head as she stared at them.

"Mr. Stark?"

Sutton gazed in wonder at the familiar room before her. It unquestionably differed only in the varying degrees of advanced technology that her world could only drool over. Steve, Natasha, and Clint suddenly all practically fell into the room at once. It looked like they had just stepped out of thin air about a foot off the ground.

"About time," Natasha grumbled.

Sutton was relieved to find they'd all made it through safely and without _too much_ interference, when a black, gear clad police officer dropped into the room as well.

_"What the-"_

Clint didn't hesitate to grab the man's shoulder and roughly fling him back toward the empty space he'd emerged from.

" _Oh no you don't._ There's only room for one universe altering stowaway here."

The man pushed went fumbling back into nothing and disappeared. Then Sutton saw the air inexplicably shift in the spot the portal had opened to. Something glimmered, stiffened like glass, and then appeared to shatter. Sutton felt her heart respond in kind.

"The portal broke," she whispered. "It's done."

Once again she was washed over with an odd sort of numbness.

She hadn't even gotten to see anyone _one last time._

The clipboard clutching scientist took a tentative step forward and peered at Tony through narrow eyes.

"How are you here? We were just watching you on the news in New York. With the alien invasion?"

Mentioning New York, the woman's eyes darted over to the aliens present and Bruce, and Sutton watched as the lights dawned in her eyes. Despite her melancholy mood, Sutton sighed and counted down in her head.

_Three...two...one..._

"Oh my gosh! It's _him!_ "

The scientists and lab assistants burst into a panic and distanced themselves from the group. Tony groaned.

"Loki the Invader has been detained. Now, it's been long day. _Month?_ Look, I could just really use a day off. Someone give me their phone. _Now._ "

Loki grinned sinisterly at the trembling group before him, obviously pleased that he could still induce fear despite his defeat. Sutton kept a good distance from him herself just in case he tried anything sketchy. Clint nodded at her tactical placement and muttered in her ear.

_"Keep your distance, kid. Nows when he'd be the most reckless."_

One brave scientist stepped forward and handed his smartphone over as demanded. At first, she wasn't entirely sure who Tony would be calling, but it was revealed quickly when his face lit up after a few seconds of holding the phone to his ear.

"Pepper! Oh, _now_ you answer your phone."

Sutton could actually quite literally hear the response explode from the other end of the phone.

_"ANTHONY STARK! I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD. HOW COULD YOU DO THAT TO ME AGAIN?"_

Everyone winced on Tony's behalf. Sutton was slightly impressed with Pepper's pipes. She had a good set of lungs.

"Pep-"

_"Don't you 'PEP' me, Tony!"_

" _Pep_ _,_ " Tony emphasized. "We could really use a ride. I need you to send a jet over."

Sutton couldn't hear Pepper's reply after that and Tony was murmuring into the phone about how he'd _explain everything to you later_ and _what_ _are_ _you going to do when you get your hands on me?_

Sutton immediately disengaged from listening at that point. She shuffled back from Tony's side and toward the S.H.I.E.L.D agents and Steve. Steve was toting the Iron Man _briefcase_ and after noticing Sutton's questioning look, he shrugged.

"Tony seemed to have forgotten it," he said. "Maybe he's rich enough to rebuild them a hundred times over, but I thought we shouldn't leave it in your world. No offense."

Sutton blew air through her nose.

"No, you're right. The last thing our government needs right now is an actual working Iron Man suit."

It didn't take long for Tony to wrap up the conversation and he carelessly tossed the man's borrowed phone back before clapping his hands together.

"Ok, a jet is on its way here. _Man_ , it's good to have money again. How _did_ you manage to survive for so long over there," he teased. Sutton looked at him flatly and responded with a straight face.

"We peasants learn to adapt."

" _In the meantime,_ " he glossed over her sarcasm, "who wants that Shawarma?"

When they all finally marched out to the runway to board the plane hours later, the plane's door was thrown open and Pepper burst out. She _click-clacked_ down the stairway in heels and made a bee-line straight toward Tony. By the look on her face, Sutton couldn't quite tell if the woman was going to smack him or make out with him.

But instead, Pepper threw her arms out and gripped Tony around the neck in one of the most heartfelt hugs Sutton had ever seen. Tony was knocked a bit off balance by Pepper's momentum, but returned the gesture just as sincerely. Sutton could hear Pepper murmuring into Tony's chest.

" _I thought you were dead."_

"I know."

"I watched you just _fall from the sky,_ Tony."

"I'm ok," he soothed. He gently kissed the top of her head and then rested his forehead on the same spot. "Gosh I've missed you."

Sutton, who was already feeling highly emotional, aggressively blinked back tears.

"It's been less than a day, Tony."

"Yeah, that's the part I have to explain."

And then he, in predictable _Tony Stark_ fashion, began to attack Pepper's face. Sutton averted her eyes.

"Well it _was_ sweet, up to this point."

"A little on the sappy side if you ask me," said Natasha.

"Hey," Clint called out. "Let's keep it PG alright? We've got virgin eyes over here!"

Sutton reddened.

" _Shut up!_ "

"I was talking about the Captain, actually."

Pepper and Tony finally separated and that's when Pepper actually noticed her for the first time.

"Wait, who are you? You're not an Avenger."

Sutton waved weakly.

" _Hi,_ no, not exactly."

Sutton decided in that moment that Pepper was officially a woman of the most immense self-control and calm she had ever stood in the presence of. She _knew_ that the woman had noticed Loki, but apparently since Thor had him by the arm and none of the others were freaking out, she kept her cool.

"I'm Sutton Regan and I'm...uh, _a big fan?_ "

"She's part of the explanation," Tony supplied.

"Tony owes me money."

Pepper looked entirely confused at the path the conversation had taken.

"I'm sorry?"

"Let's just get on the plane first. I could really use a drink."

Once they were in the air and Tony had enough alcohol in him, the billionaire explained as well as he could of their time away in Sutton's world. Other members of the team would cut in if they had more insight to an event or if they felt a correction needed to be made to one of Tony's claims.

_No, they did_ _ not _ _build statues of you in your honor and worship you there-_

_We are not_ _ cavemen _ _, Tony, just because we don't have frickin' holograms that can-_

_Wrong. You weren't even the one who actually fixed the portal-_

Tony, she discovered, liked to embellish stories a little. After the tale was over, Pepper just sat back, dumbfounded. She blinked a few time and ran a hand through her hair.

"Another universe? That's crazy! I mean, I know aliens and super powers are crazy, but _another world?_ "

Then Pepper looked over to her.

"You poor thing. I can't even imagine- And you had to put up with _all_ of these guys for that long? You must be a saint."

"Not as much as you are," Sutton admitted. "Besides, Natasha's also already in the _superhero-handler_ saint club."

Pepper pushed a strand of hair behind her ear and smiled.

"Oh, I know. We do coffee."

"Wait, _what?_ You two _really_ get along? You weren't lying?"

Tony pulled Pepper closer to himself as if Natasha was plotting to steal his girlfriend.

"I told you that already!"

Clint looked affronted.

"You don't talk about me, do you?"

Natasha patted his knee patronizingly.

"Of course not."

Conversation on the plane then diverted to other topics: the destruction of New York, contacting S.H.I.E.L.D, and containing Loki until they could get the Asgardians home. Sutton was already on the opposite end of the plane from the trickster and she really wouldn't feel any safer until he was off planet.

_Had he really given up so easily?_

He seemed deep in thought at the moment, not even paying her any mind, but she still felt like that was ill-boding in its own right.

_If only she'd gotten to stay home long enough to see 'Thor: The Dark World'._

She was flying just as blind as the rest of them now.

And it sucked.

_She really liked knowing things_. Pepper asked her about her plan for living now, and Sutton was forced to admit that she didn't really have one. It was difficult to do basic life functions when the world didn't believe you existed. When you technically didn't exist at all. It was disorienting to think that she was the odd one out now. Pepper, bless her, informed Sutton that she'd help take care of all the pesky paperwork.

"Don't worry, we'll get you all sorted out. Jarvis can start establishing some digital records for you and we'll create a family history that goes back far enough to be believable. I'm sure S.H.I.E.L.D will understand."

She gave a pointed look at the two present agents who nodded in agreement.

"Fury will probably want to meet her, of course."

Sutton swallowed thickly and shifted in her seat. If there was one thing she really wasn't in the mood for, _besides being kidnapped by Loki,_ it was being interrogated by Nick Fury. Actually, that was something she could go the rest of her life without. But again, it would do her no good to protest. There was nothing for her to barter, bargain, or leverage anymore. Now she was the lost, unsure fish out of water.

Sutton fell asleep on the plane. She'd tried not to. Quite admirably too, but it wasn't enough. Because no matter how much she told herself that she could _never_ sleep in front of people or on aircraft, trains, cars, or boats, she ended up being quite capable of it. Besides, it was a _really comfortable_ plane. She'd never flown first class before, but she bet it wasn't even as nice as this was. She was certain every chair was a La-Z-Boy. She was also pretty sure they were heated too. Regardless, it all amounted to her having one of the best naps she'd had in awhile.

When she woke up again, they weren't in New York, but they were close. Sutton could feel her skin tingle sharply. Not once had she ever been to the Big Apple. Her eyes were glued to the window as they began their descent an hour or so later.

It was warm out, that was the first thing that registered with her. She wasn't used to this type of warmth at this time of the year. Or ever really. You were only allotted so many "hot" days in Washington, and once you used them up, you were done. They were on a private tarmac and there was a chauffeur and a couple of S.H.I.E.L.D cars to meet them. It was still very surreal. It didn't help that Sutton was immensely uncomfortable. She just wanted a shower, some clean clothes, and some alone time to wrap herself up like a burrito and not think for a moment. She was tired of having to put on a show and having to interact with people. But that wasn't in the cards for her foreseeable future; and she really couldn't see all that far ahead as it was.

Happy was the chauffeur waiting and he popped out the, _whatever expensive vehicle this was_ , and beamed at Tony.

"There you are, sir," he said. "It's good to see you alright. _Some_ people were freaking out over your stunt at Stark Tower with the portal." He made an ill attempt at subtly nodding in Pepper's direction, but Sutton could see that his own eyes were a bit red. Pepper rolled her eyes at the man's deflection.

"Happy," Tony smiled even though he cringed slightly at the mention of the wormhole. "Good to see you, bud."

Sutton zoned out and shifted from foot to foot as reunions were had and destinations set. Tilting her head toward Steve, she caught his eye eventually.

"Did you make any friends to meet up with, before all this craziness?"

Steve looked chagrinned.

"Er, not really, no. I, uh, I was still working on...getting settled."

Sutton gave him one curt nod and didn't pester him on the subject further.

"Well, then, we're in a similar boat, I guess."

"Yeah," Steve stuffed his hands in his pants pockets. "I guess so."

It occurred to her then, that maybe she was being a bit presumptuous in comparing their experiences, but she was ushered into a vehicle before she could retract her statement. It made her feel kind of bad. Steve had lost his best friend in war and his first love to old age. He woke up in a new world that had forgotten the war and had time to heal. He hadn't gotten that chance. She couldn't compare to that. But Steve was getting in to a S.H.I.E.L.D SUV and she was in Tony's car, and she might have been over thinking it, so it was left alone.

It didn't take too long for the private airport to transition into the gray looming bustle of the city. And not just any city. _THE city._ _New York, New York_.

She let her mind go and just pretended she was finally on that vacation she was never able to take. The skyscrapers towered arrogantly above them and Sutton was amazed by the sheer amount of concrete the city possessed. There was hardly any green in sight. As someone who had barely ever left her own state, actually had only ever ventured down to Oregon _once_ , it was a shock to see such different landscape. She couldn't see herself ever driving here. It was too crazy, too fast, and too stressful. And this was after an attempted alien invasion. She could see a bit of evidence from the battle. It was making her sweat just sitting in the backseat and watching Tony maneuver through traffic. Because for _some reason_ Tony couldn't let his chauffeur do what he was paid for.

Happy was actually in the backseat with her. It was a little uncomfortable. She had given the guy a closed lipped smile when they'd first settled and left it at that.

Tony told Pepper several times during the drive that he didn't give two rusted gears what S.H.I.E.L.D said, he was going to get some rest before he did anything else. If they wanted to speak with him or debrief him, _which I'd prefer if you did, dear_ , they'd have to make an appointment and come to his office. Sutton, for once, was relieved by Tony's behavior. The idea of going to a S.H.I.E.L.D base wasn't at all tempting at the moment. There was only so much one could do in a day before they just broke. Going through a dimensional portal and leaving her entire life behind counted towards that significantly.

Tony turned down another road and an old architecture style building rose before them. Sutton recognized it as a hotel, but otherwise had neither heard of it or new of it's significance. She assumed it was leagues out of her price range. A valet took the Tony's car to park it and they all piled out to head to the lobby.

"Tony," Pepper complained. Tony just gave a small self-satisfied smirk and shrugged.

"What? The city is a mess and my tower is in shambles. Luckily this place wasn't messed up. No way I'm staying in a Motel 8 again."

Sutton rolled her eyes behind them. Apparently this hotel was far enough away from the destruction to not have seen much damage and able to remain open. She really didn't understand why that was. Maybe the other wealthy people needed a place to stay too after their lavish apartments were leveled? Regardless, she accepted the card key she was given after Tony strutted up to the counter with a _"you know who I am, I need three rooms."_ Sutton was glad that her room was a ways down the hall from Tony and Pepper. Really glad. She wanted to sleep more than anything else, after a shower of course. They all rode the elevator up and Sutton was impressed with how well Pepper was able to keep Tony in check despite the fact that he was getting a bit too grabby for her comfort. The room down the hall was seriously a gift.

Sutton said thank you and goodnight to the group before trudging down to her own room. She ignored the lavish décor, the wine bottle in an ice bucket on a hardwood table, and instead appreciated the rain-head shower spray with multiple faucets. And then she admired the queen size bed by sinking into the impossibly fluffy down comforter. It met her expectations.

 

A week later and Sutton was standing in Central Park watching Thor and Loki prepare to leave. She was showered and in clean, new clothes and finally had a decent amount of sleep keeping her afloat.

Nick Fury, who she had been forcefully introduced to (and she was still trying to not have nightmares about, _thank you very much_ ), had still agreed to let the Asgardians maintain the safety of the Tesseract. The only immediate differences at the moment from the movie's ending was the fact that Loki lacked the convenient muzzle. Sutton had always been weirded out by that thing anyway.

_Who just had a muzzle like that laying around? Did they make it specifically for Loki? Did they think he could use Dragon-spell on them or something or did they just not want to see his adorable-mentally-unstable smile and melt. Really, what was the point of it?_

Sutton stepped forward and gave Thor a quick hug in parting while smiling up at him.

"It was great meeting you Thor. You really are a noble prince."

"And you are a valiant warrior," he said. "I apologize again on my brother's behalf."

Sutton shook her head.

" _Don't_. It's not your fault."

She stepped away and was heading back to the group when a thought hit her and she froze.

" _Wait_ , Thor."

Thor's hand stilled on the device's handle that would send the two home. Sutton fidgeted with her fingers and glanced at Tony. He hadn't been happy about her not sharing information when it had been him and his future, _and maybe she shouldn't,_ but...

She tried to lower her voice, but it didn't make a difference.

"The villain for your next movie, er, I mean adventure? I heard it supposed to be a, um, dark elf?"

Thor's head tilted and Loki's eyes suddenly flashed up at her with interest. Sutton hoped she wouldn't regret saying anything in front of him.

"But that's impossible," said Thor. "They are all destroyed." Sutton shrugged.

"That's what I heard, from my world at least. I think his name is Mal- Mali-"

" _Malekith_ ," Loki finished for her. Sutton glared but nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, that's it."

Thor appeared even more troubled, but nodded in gratitude.

"Thank you, Lady Sutton."

Sutton uneasily glanced at Loki and could practically see the gears turning behind his eyes.

"Yes," he practically purred. " _Thank you._ I'm sure we'll meet again."

She finally regrouped with Tony on the edge of the teleporting circle.

"I'd rather we not, if it's all the same to you."

But Loki's smirk just unsettled her further because he _lost_. _Nothing had worked out for him._ Not beating the Avengers, not using her to twist this world, and not using her as a force against Thanos. But he didn't carry the air of someone who had been devastated. Sutton told herself that was just the mask he made sure everyone could see to keep appearances up. That had to be it.

With one last _goodbye_ from Thor, the brothers simultaneously twisted the handles on each side of the container and were lifted up in a beam of blazing blue light. Sutton swore she was just about done with freaking _blue lights_. And then came the moment she'd been regretfully anticipating.

The group shifted and began breaking away. Steve walked up to her and gave her a side hug and a smile.

"If you ever want suggestions on movies or books or technology or anything," began Sutton. Steve gave her shoulder a quick, affectionate squeeze.

"I'll give you a call," he agreed. Sutton had made him promise to keep in touch. He still had a lot of pop culture to catch up on after all. And you really couldn't trust Tony to give him good advice on any of it. She watched as Steve hopped on his motorcycle and rode away with one last wave. She'd heard that he was going to stay employed by S.H.I.E.L.D, so the odds of seeing him anytime soon weren't looking good.

Natasha handed Bruce a duffel bag and then hopped in a car with Clint. They both waved before Clint hit the gas and floored it onto the city streets with a cry of,

_"Caw, caw, mot-"_

_"LANGUAGE!"_

Sutton stood rooted next to Tony and watched as they all disbanded.

"Well, that's it then," she said. No Avengers version of " _Friends"_ for her.

Tony threw an arm around her shoulders and tugged her along to his parked car. He'd brought a different convertible that had a small backseat because she'd decided to come and see this all through.

_Wasn't she just special._

"Come on, kid," he said. "You've got a lot of work ahead of you."

"Huh?"

"You still have classes to pass if you actually want to interpret for the Deaf, after all. That was what you were rambling on about in the car that one time, wasn't it? I can't have an incompetent interpreter at my press conferences, you know. Bad for PR."

Sutton stuttered as she climbed into the back of the vehicle.

"Tony, I don't even have a job yet to pay for-"

"Um, correct me if I'm wrong, but you _were_ the one complaining about how much money I owed you the entire time we were in your universe, right?"

Sutton reddened.

"Not the _entire_ time, and I don't-"

"Just consider us square now."  
Bruce had hopped in the car after them, slightly less gracefully than they had, and settled his duffel bag on the floor.

" _Tony."_ Sutton could feel her eyes go hot. "You're going to ruin your hard earned reputation. People are going to start to think you're nice now."

Tony smirked in the review mirror.

"You'll probably take that back after your first press conference with me."

"So," Bruce piped up. "Where to then?"

Tony threw the car into drive.

"First," he said, "we're getting a decent burger, then-"

The car lurched out from the sidewalk and tore into traffic. Sutton clutched at her seatbelt and experienced a case of deja vu.

" _Then_ I'm taking you both to _Candyland_."

Sutton forgot the high speeds they were traveling at and beamed.

"I get to finally meet Jarvis!"

Tony groaned.

" _Seriously_. I know he's great, I mean _I made him,_ but I think you're more excited to meet him than you were to meet _us._ "

"Jarvis wouldn't blow up my toaster," she pointed out. "He'd probably make me the perfect toast while telling me the day's weather and what colors complimented my skin tone."

"Oh my gosh! I'll buy you a new toaster! Let it go, it wasn't even that great; it could only do two pieces at a time! It didn't even toast a picture on your bread!"

Sutton smiled as Bruce laughed and then commented on the upcoming lab visit. Apparently Stark tower was up and running enough to allow visitors and they would be staying there until repairs started and then be heading back to California. She wasn't sure how long Bruce was going to stick around. The duffel bag hinted at _not too long_.

The sun hit her face and she closed her eyes as the wind rushed through her mass of hair. She still felt off a bit. _A lot off_. Like part of her was empty or missing now. But this, she knew, was a better alternative to prison. It could grow on her. She'd get better; she'd _make_ herself get better. Everything would settle down and she'd start living a semi-normal life and try not to think of her family every five seconds.

She wasn't alone, right?. Tony was going to _employ_ her, probably also to keep tabs on her, and Pepper had been nice and cooed and fussed over her and her situation at their first meeting. Sutton suspected that Tony had partly used her to sooth out Pepper's ire at him. Like he was some selfless humanitarian that had rescued some amputee orphan who'd just lost their pet dog. Pepper probably saw through any of that, but she was still a very empathetic person at heart.

So now here she was, Sutton Regan of Marvel Earth-616. Her future plans, _besides school now she guessed_ , included her keeping her head down, staying off everyone's radar, and trying to rebuild herself piece by piece. She was going to stay out of trouble and never ever pick up hitchhikers ever again.

And maybe, eventually, she was going to be just fine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nyah-ha! So that's it for Universal Headaches! Let me know what you thought of it! This is actually the first story I've ever written to completion, so for all it's faults I'll always be proud for that reason. 
> 
> And there is a sequel on the way shortly! Be on the lookout for Universal Displacement! ;)


End file.
